European markets were mixed last week with a decrease in the FTSE 100 of 0.85%, the FTSE 250 +1.07%, Stoxx Europe 600 -0.35% and the DAX +0.14%. U.S. equities were down 0.35% for the same period.

– Spot VIX is -3.89% for the week and closed Friday at 28.16.

– WTI Crude June contracts rolled last week and we are now in July front month contracts which closed on Friday at $33.56 a barrel, up 3.26% for the week (15/5/20 close of $32.50 a barrel).

ETF Launches and Updates

BlackRock launched a new iShares ETF on Xetra and Börse Frankfurt – The iShares $ Corp Bond ESG UCITS ETF EUR Hedged (Dist). The ETF provides exposure for investors to fixed income corporate bonds denominated in USD.

Amundi listed their Physical Gold ETC on London Stock Exchange this week, ticker GLDA. At the least expensive gold exposure offering with a TER of 0.15%, it is also available on Euronext Amsterdam (GOLD), as well as the Deutsche Boerse (GLDA) and Euronext Paris (GOLD).

Flows and Performance

Gold ETFs attracted record inflows in April gathering $9.2bn in new investments last month. Reaching almost a five-month period, inflows have totaled $16.8billion and are set for a record year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

State Street’s $62billion SPDR Gold Shares, GLD, has taken in nearly $12billion in 2020, ranking it third for worldwide ETF inflows.

Bloomberg reported that investors are fleeing the biggest ETF focused on domestic U.K. stocks. The Vanguard FTSE 250 UCITS ETF saw an outflow of 89 million pounds in the latest trading session that Bloomberg has data for, its biggest one-day redemption since January.

An emerging-market ETF focused on e-commerce has trounced peers this year as consumers increasingly turn to digital marketplaces because of virus-fueled lockdowns.

EMQQ, with $556 million in AUM, has posted a total return of 12.3% this year, becoming the best-performing, U.S.-based passive instrument that invests in the developing world.

Based on HanETF’s website, EMQQ is also listed locally on the following exchanges: BI, CBOE, ISE, LSE, Xetra. Source: Bloomberg and HANetf website

Noteworthy Topics: Bonds, Oil, Closings

Bond Buying Program – BlackRock has won significant amounts of new business after the US Fed selected the world’s biggest fund manager to run its coronavirus-induced bond-buying programme.

Investors ploughed $4.3bn into BlackRock’s flagship LQD corporate bond ETF last month, while directly competing products run by Vanguard and State Street pulled in just $33m and $15m respectively.

April’s inflows swelled LQD’s assets to $45.2bn. Analysts suggested investors were pouring money into funds they expected to benefit from the bond purchases. Source: FT May 20

The WisdomTree WTI Crude Oil ETP (CRUD) has seen its AUM cross the $2.5bn barrier for the first time following several months of strong inflows.

According to data from Ultumus, CRUD saw $517m inflows last week, the most across all European-listed ETFs, backing-up over $1bn inflows in April alone. For the month of May, CRUD is up over 35% but not surprisingly, the picture is not so pretty for the year, down over 64% YTD.

The United States Oil Fund, ticker USO, the biggest oil exchange-traded fund in the world, said on Thursday that RBC Capital Markets had stopped it from buying any more oil futures.

Meanwhile Royal Dutch Shell said it would no longer act as a dealer for WisdomTree — a move that pushed the fund manager to shut eight crude oil-based products as well as a carbon price tracker that have combined assets of about $550m. FT

Fund Closures

According to an article in ETF Stream, the following nine ETPs will cease trading on 10 June:

· WisdomTree Brent Crude Oil 1mth (OILB)

· WisdomTree Brent Crude Oil 1yr (OSB1)

· WisdomTree Brent Crude Oil 2yr (OSB2)

· WisdomTree Brent Crude Oil 3yr (OSB3)

· WisdomTree WTI Crude Oil 2mth (OILW)

· WisdomTree WTI Crude Oil 1yr (OSW1)

· WisdomTree WTI Crude Oil 2yr (OSW2)

· WisdomTree WTI Crude Oil 3yr (OSW3)

· WisdomTree Carbon (CARB)

Fund Performance and Flows

Top 3 Best Weekly Performers in the UK

Xtrackers Physical Rhodium ETC +22.58%

WisdomTree WTI Crude Oil Pre-Roll +12.30%

WisdomTree Carbon +12.16%

Top 3 Worst Weekly Performers in the UK

WisdomTree WTI Crude Oil 1yr -13.72%

iShares USD Treasury Bond 20yr UCITS ETF EUR Hedged (Dist) -0.91%

iShares Treasury Bond 20yr UCITS ETF GBP Hedged (Dist) -0.89%

Top 3 Weekly UK Inflows

iShares Physical Gold ETC $218.2M (the week prior was $188.1M)

iShares USD Treasury 1-3 Yr UCITS ETF USD (Acc) $50.1m

Invesco Bloomberg Commodity UCITS ETF $46.3m

Top 3 Weekly UK Outflows

iShares FTSE 250 UCITS ETF GBP (Dist) -$57m

WisdomTree Long USD Short GBP -$53.4m

WisdomTree WTI Crude Oil GBP Daily Hedged -$49.8m