Weekly Market Monitor – Week Ending 5 May 2023

• Gold and gold miner ETFs (GDX, MNRS, QAU) were the theme across the top performers list last week as gold rallied above $3,000 to all-time Australian dollar highs yet again. Gold miner revenues are naturally tied to gold’s price performance and investing in them usually represents a leveraged exposure to gold.
• Crude oil (OOO) was the poorest performer for the week as traders re-evaluated supply and demand dynamics as global economies seem to show signs of weakness. Russian crude production has also yet to show signs of the supply-cuts promised in March, as the four-week average of crude shipments continue to rise.
• There were $299.4 million in reported industry inflows last week, of which bond and cash ETFs (AAA, BILL, IAF, ICOR, SUBD, USTB) took a significant portion. Australians continue to favour income generating assets in the currently uncertain macroeconomic environment.
• There were $140.9 million in reported outflows, marking yet another week of net positive flows for the ETF industry.
• Large index tracking ETFs (A200, IOZ, IVV, VAS, VGS, VHY) were responsible for the majority of trading volumes as usual. Interestingly, leveraged short equity funds (BBOZ, BBUS, SNAS) also made a strong showing, indicating investors are growing increasingly accustomed to using ETFs as trading tools.

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