With gold prices nearing $1,900and more assets flowing in, the SPDR Gold ETF has become the largest ETF in the world, surpassing the heavily-traded S&P 500 SPDR.
The SPDR Gold ETF passed the S&P 500 SPDR for the first time on Friday. It remained #1 as of yesterday’s close with $77.5 billion in assets, about $1 billion more than the S&P 500 SPDR, according to State Street Global Advisors, the marketer of the 2 ETFs.
That move is not just a result of particularly strong inflows into the SPDR Gold ETF; it also reflects the noticeably big outflows from the S&P 500 SPDR amid ongoing jitters in Europe, the recent S&P downgrade of U.S. debt, and concerns of slowing economic global growth.
According to IndexUniverse.com, as of Friday’s close, SPDR Gold ETF has accumulated $1.5 billion in inflows so far this month, while $7 billion has spewed out of the S&P SPDR ETF in August. Meanwhile, gold prices have soared 16% and the S&P 500 has tumbled nearly 12% this month.
How much of a behemoth has the SPDR Gold ETF become? With its current $77.5 billion in assets under management, SPDR Gold ETF currently makes up nearly 60% of all commodity ETF assets.
If it were a stock, the ETF would be the 27th largest stock in the S&P 500—bigger than Citigroup, Bank of America, United Technologies, Walt Disney, 3M, Goldman Sachs, Caterpillar, and of course many more notable large cap stocks.
Still Bigger Than the GLD:
Biggest S&P 500 Stocks by Market Cap
1. ExxonMobil $341 billion
2. Apple $330 billion
3. Microsoft $201 billion
4. IBM $190 billion
5. Chevron $187 billion
6. Wal-Mart $181 billion
7. Johnson & Johnson $173 billion
8. Procter & Gamble $170 billion
9. AT&T $169 billion
10. Google $161 billion
11. General Electric $160 billion
12. Coca-Cola $154 billion
13. Pfizer $138 billion
14. JPMorgan Chase $130 billion
15. Oracle $127 billion
16. Wells Fargo $121 billion
17. Philip Morris Int’l. $121 billion
18. Intel $102 billion
19. Verizon $99 billion
20. Pepsi $98 billion
21. Schlumberger $98 billion
22. Merck $96 billion
23. McDonald's $91 billion
24. ConocoPhillips $87 billion
25. Cisco Systems $83 billion
26. Amazon.com $81 billion
Additionally, backed by 1,284 tonnes of gold, the SPDR Gold ETF continues to be the 6th largest holder of gold in the world, holding more gold than Chinese, Swiss, Russian, and Japanese governments.
World’s Biggest Holders of Gold
1. United States 8,134 tonnes
2. Germany 3,401 tonnes
3. IMF 2,814 tonnes
4. Italy 2,452 tonnes
5. France 2,435 tonnes
6. SPDR Gold 1,284 tonnes
7. China 1,054 tonnes
8. Switzerland 1,040 tonnes
9. Russia 837 tonnes
10. Japan 765 tonnes
Sources: World Gold Council & State Street Global Advisors
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