European investors have significantly increased their commodity exposure, with $1.3 billion going into broad commodity ETFs in the first quarter of 2017, according to analysis from European ETF provider Source.

Source has reported that the Source Physical Gold ETP (LON: SGLD) has recorded over $500m of net new assets year to date (5 April), as the gold price has risen 9% during the same period.

ETF Securities has launched a suite of broad market ETFs on NYSE Arca which are designed to track the popular Bloomberg Commodity Indices, a family of liquid and diversified indices, giving investors exposure to global commodities.

The NewGold ETF has launched on the Nairobi Stock Exchange, becoming Kenya’s first ETF to list in the country.

Direxion has launched the Direxion Auspice Broad Commodity Strategy ETF (NYSE: COM) which seeks to provide total return that exceeds that of the Auspice Broad Commodity Index over a complete market cycle. The index utilizes a rules-based process to capture trends in 12 diversified commodity markets using a quantitative methodology. Positions in each of the 12 commodities can be either long or flat, based on risk reduction where the allocation of individual components is reduced if volatility exceeds certain predetermined risk levels.

ETF Securities’ Gold ETPs recorded their second-highest inflows of the year during the week beginning 20 March, adding $167 million, according to the firm’s latest ETF weekly flows analysis. The London-based commodity ETF specialist has attributed the surge in demand to expectations of Fed dovishness supporting gold prices further.

Gold mining equities are currently trading at highly attractive valuations and have the potential to close the gap on the price of gold, according to commentary from VanEck, the provider of the VanEck Vectors Gold Miners UCITS ETF (LON: GDX) and the VanEck Vectors Junior Gold Miners UCITS ETF (LON: GDXJ).

UBS Asset Management has announced that the UBS CMCI Composite SF UCITS ETF (LON: UC14) has surpassed $1 billion in assets under management driven by a surge in net new money of $224 million between 1 January and 13 March 2017. According to UBS, inflows into the ETF gained momentum over the last six months as investors sought to protect portfolios from an increasingly inflationary environment.

For the second week in a row, London-based ETF Securities’ gold and platinum ETFs experienced net outflows as expectations for a March rate hike by the Federal Reserve increased. According to the firm’s weekly flows analysis, its gold ETFs saw $71 million outflows as the spot gold price fell below $1,200/oz for the first time since the beginning of February. Janet Yellen (pictured) will announce the Fed’s rate decision on 15th March.

London-based ETF Securities has reported that its gold ETFs saw $96 million in outflows during the week beginning 27th February, driven by hawkish rhetoric from the US Federal Reserve (Fed), marking the first net outflows for five weeks. Fed commentary has led investors to change their views on the timing of the Fed’s next move with the Fed Funds futures implied probability of a rate rise later this month rising from 40% at the start of the week to 90% by the end.