Investors spooked by inflation, geopolitical risk and volatility in the stock market are flocking to commodity ETFs to diversify and hedge their portfolios.
So far in 2022, through the end of April, $21.4 billion has flowed into exchange-traded funds in this sector, in contrast to the $6.3 billion in net outflows during the same period in 2021, according to Morningstar Direct. There are now 122 commodity ETFs, up from 112 last year.
Unsurprisingly, gold and other precious-metals ETFs did best, attracting 57.5% of all positive inflows in the commodities category, according to CFRA, an independent markets research and analytics firm. Precious-metals ETFs are seen as a haven against inflation, which is running at the highest rate in 40 years. The most popular was
ETF (GLD). It had inflows of $7.4 billion, boosting total net assets to about $67…