State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) has cross-listed the SPDR S&P US Dividend Aristocrats EUR Hedged UCITS ETF on Borsa Italiana. The fund provides exposure to US-listed companies with sustainable dividend yields while hedging currency exposure between the US dollar and the euro. The new listing trades on Borsa Italiana under the ticker USDE IM and comes with an expense ratio of 0.40%.

Gold bugs and commodity bulls will be delighted at the return of two long-established commodity ETFs – the Market Access Rogers International Commodity Index UCITS ETF (RICI LN) and the Market Access NYSE Arca Gold BUGS Index UCITS ETF (GOLB LN) – to the London Stock Exchange.

Coinciding with the listing of the Market Access Rogers International Commodity Index UCITS ETF (RICI LN) on the London Stock Exchange, distinguished investor Jim Rogers spoke to an audience of more than 600 investors on a call co-promoted by ETF Strategy. Rogers expressed a bullish view on commodities, submitting a compelling case for long positions in agriculture, metals – including gold and silver – and energy.

The Royal Mint Physical Gold ETC (RMAU LN) has been registered for distribution in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Finland. The move expands the ETC’s sales footprint to seven European countries which also include Ireland, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Germany. According to Jatin Patel, Head of Wealth Management at The Royal Mint, “The passporting is in response to significant demand from investors from these key European countries.”

Physical gold ETCs are prospering from strong returns and record inflows as investors continue to seek safe havens amid ongoing market turbulence. Products from BlackRock and Invesco have led the way with both issuers seeing their gold ETCs surge past the $10 billion AUM mark in recent days. Chris Mellor, Head of ETF Equity and Commodity Product Management at Invesco, said, “Gold has been shown to be a safer store of value during the recent market turmoil than most other assets, and demand from investors has continued to grow.”

By Fiona Boal, Head of Commodities and Real Assets, S&P Dow Jones Indices.

It is difficult to accurately express the magnitude of the health, societal, and economic costs of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the lens of the commodities markets, the economic impact has been swift and severe. The broad-based S&P GSCI ended March down an extraordinary 29.4%, the largest monthly drop in performance in the index’s nearly 29-year history.

ETFs providing exposure to gold and other precious metals are staging a rally as the coronavirus pandemic boosts demand for safe-haven assets and threatens commodity supply shortages. Gold ETCs such as the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD US) and iShares Physical Gold ETC (IGLN LN) have gained 9% in the past four days. Precious metals ETFs have performed even better with the Aberdeen Standard Physical Precious Metals Basket Shares ETF (GLTR US) and WisdomTree Physical Precious Metals ETC (PHPP LN) adding around 18% over the same period.

Amundi has reduced the expense ratio on its $1.7 billion physical gold ETC from 0.19% to 0.15%. Following the price cut, the Amundi Physical Gold ETC offers the lowest fixed annual fee of any physical gold exchange-traded product available in Europe. Nicolas Fragneau, Head of ETF Product Specialists at Amundi, commented, “Gold has such an important role to play in times of uncertainty. Our aim was to make it as cheap, easy and safe as possible for investors to add this precious commodity to their portfolio.”

Investors sold $37.2 billion of ETFs (and ETPs) globally across all asset classes in the last week of February amid escalating worries about the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak. According to data from BlackRock, the sell-off represented the worst week for outflows since records began in 2011. Equity ETFs experienced the brunt of the sell-off, shedding $31.5bn in net outflows during the final week in February, also a record for the asset class.

Gold ETFs experienced global net inflows of $4.9 billion in February, increasing their collective holdings by 84.5 tonnes to reach a new all-time high of 3,033t, according to data from the World Gold Council. Strong inflows were observed in all regions as market uncertainty surrounding the potential impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the global economy triggered a switch into the safe-haven asset.