Gold and fixed income cheer up the summer doldrums

We may have been on the beach, but we managed to be truly prescient over August, matching iShares for BlackRock’s July report of the most popular ETF strategies, gold and fixed income, with stories of our own.

BlackRock’s figures show that fixed income ETP flows hit a new record (USD60.5 billion) over July and the month marked the third consecutive month of inflows into gold ETPs and the biggest month for gold buying since March 2022, alongside net buying of silver ETPs.

In terms of fixed income, Bailey McCann talked to John Hassett, CEO of Little Harbor Advisors, about their actively managed fund of ETFs product that offers exposure to a range of fixed income ETFs, which is gaining traction with US advisers.

We also reported The World Gold Council’s monthly gold ETF report which shows that global gold ETFs witnessed their third consecutive monthly inflows in July – the strongest month since April 2022 with western investors leading the charge due, the WGC says, to renewed interest in the asset to diversify and safeguard their portfolios.

Interviews over the last few weeks included our conversation with Guillaume Dambrine of Franklin Templeton’s French speaking EMEA team who told us about the differing appetites and restrictions on buying ETFs across his part of EMEA.

The European ETF market is pretty fragmented and Dambrine explains that, historically, the French market has been an institutional market in terms of ETF use. "Now things are changing a bit with more and more retail clients investing in ETFs through their usual distribution channels or directly through digital platforms. The big chunk of ETF users is still institutional, however, but they are slowly shifting to a more balanced split," he says.

More global news and opinions from us means that we are pleased to bring you news from South Africa of its burgeoning ETF industry. Kim Gibb, CEO of South Africa’s Prescient Management Company, writes that, while initially off to a slow start, South Africa is beginning to see momentum in the demand for actively managed ETFs.

We also posted a new podcast over the summer, with John Ciampaglia of Canada’s Sprott Asset Management discussing the metals of the future – uranium and copper. Follow this link to hear him in discussion with me.

Nominations remain open for ETF service providers in the ETF Express US Awards – if you are still lucky enough to be on holiday, get off that sun lounger and get nominating now – your favourite firms need you. Follow this link to place your nominations.

Finally, we can offer readers wishing to attend the RIA Edge West event in Marina del Rey, California in October, a discount of 20 per cent using this code - ETF2024Exp. The event details are here.

Beverly Chandler, Managing Editor

For live updates please follow us on Twitterand LinkedIn.