BlackRock’s Gold ETF Holdings Climb to a Record High

(Bloomberg) -- Signs of increasing investor appetite for gold just keep piling up.

On Tuesday, investors poured the most money into BlackRock’s iShares Gold Trust since April 2011, taking the exchange-traded fund’s bullion holdings to the highest ever. Assets in long-only ETFs linked to the precious metal totaled $111 billion this month, the most in more than six years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence.

Money has been pouring into gold as investors seek to protect their wealth amid mounting concerns of slowing global growth that are seen spurring monetary easing from central banks around the world. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut U.S. borrowing costs for the first time in more than a decade, making non-interest bearing bullion more competitive against other assets.

Since the end of April, gold has rallied 11% in the spot market, outpacing the 2.4% rally in the S&P 500 index. Bullion is on course for its biggest three-month gain since April 2016.

To contact the reporter on this story: Justina Vasquez in New York at jvasquez57@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Luzi Ann Javier at ljavier@bloomberg.net, Joe Richter

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