Central Banks to Continue to Drive Sentiment

ETF Securities Commodity ETP Weekly Central Banks to Continue to Drive Sentiment

WTI ETP investors become more polarised.

ETFS Platinum Trust (PPLT) sees US$11.5mn  of inflows while ETFS Palladium  Trust (PALL) sees US$11.8mn of outflows.

Coffee ETPs attract US$5.3mn in a volatile week of trading.

US$24.6mn of redemptions from ETFS Copper (COPA) followed China’s lowering of target growth.

A better-than-expected labour market reading in the US released late last week should set the tone for cyclical optimism this week. However, the initial impact was a sell-off in gold and some cyclical assets as the market took the strong numbers as cue for the hawks at the Fed to start raising rates sooner than previously expected. With the ECB commencing its quantitative easing programme this week and further policy easing expected from a number of other countries, we believe that cyclical commodities will be able to shake off the recent bout of pessimism.

WTI ETP investors become more polarised. While inflows into long WTI continued for the 23rd week in a row, we saw a pick-up in flows into short WTI ETPs. Flows into the long products amounted to US$17.1mn (a three-week low) while flows into the short products amounted to US$9.1mn (a three-week high). A 5.4% gain in WTI led the longs to be victorious this week. US crude inventories continue to rise despite rigs being shut off. The glut in supply could continue for longer than many initially expected, driving the demand for WTI shorts. Additionally with the WTI futures curve in contango, investors in the short products will benefit from positive roll yield. Long Brent ETPs inflows of US$5.9mn reached the lowest level in four weeks.

ETFS Platinum Trust (PPLT) sees US$11.5mn of inflows while ETFS Palladium Trust (PALL) sees US$11.8mn of outflows. US investors appear to be switching between from palladium to platinum as its price is at historically attractive levels. The ratio of platinum to palladium price has fallen to 1.7 down from over 5.5 in 2009. While palladium has risen 6.4% in the past year, platinum has fallen 19.9%. As supply of the both metals tighten this year with a number of South African mines cutting back on production, platinum has the potential to make catch-up gains. Anglo American Platinum Ltd last Monday confirmed its plans to divest its Union and Rustenburg mines by selling or listing them as stand-alone companies.

Coffee ETPs attract US$5.3mn in a volatile week of trading. Coffee fell 6.6% on Tuesday and then rose 6.2% on Wednesday in a particularly volatile week. Continued rain in Brazil, the key producer of Arabica coffee, and increasing production in Colombia drove the price weakness. However the sharp rebound on Wednesday came amidst an interest rate hike by the Brazilian central bank. Prior Brazilian Real weakness contributed to stock off-loading by Brazilian coffee farmers. The Real appreciation that followed the rate rise could help tighten supply. The drastic decline in coffee prices in the past month appears overdone given the damage to coffee bushes had largely taken place in 2014 and the recent rain can do little to reverse that.

US$24.6mn of redemptions from ETFS Copper (COPA) followed China’s lowering of target growth. With China consuming approximately 40% of total global copper supply, its new growth target of around 7% from around 7.5% last year, has been seen to hurt demand for copper. However, we believe tightening supply will mitigate that potential loss of demand.

Video Presentation

Nitesh Shah, Research Analyst at ETF Securities provides an analysis of last week’s performance, flow and trading activity in commodity exchange traded products and a look at the week ahead.

Important Information

This communication has been provided by ETF Securities (UK) Limited (”ETFS UK”) which is authorised and regulated by the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority.