SPDR Gold Wrests ETF Crown From S&P 500 Fund on Turmoil

If you've got funds in GLD, and its physical ownership is encumbered or not allocated specifically to you, tell your  story of woe to the Lord.

August 22, 2011, 6:03 PM EDT
 

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By Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam and Christopher Condon

 

(Updates with year-to-date returns for gold, S&P 500 Index in fourth paragraph.)

Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Gold reached a new milestone in its role as an investment and haven, with the leading exchange- traded fund that tracks bullion surpassing its equities counterpart as the biggest ETF by market value.

SPDR Gold Trust’s market capitalization rose to $76.7 billion on Aug. 19, according to the most recent data compiled by Bloomberg, driven by the rising prices of the metal, which topped $1,900 an ounce for the first time today. SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, which has been the industry’s largest exchange-traded fund since 1993, stood at $74.4 billion, now 3.1 percent smaller. At the start of the year, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index-tracking ETF was 56 percent larger.

“Gold has become the portfolio antidote for the global financial crisis,” James McDonald, chief investment strategist at Northern Trust Corp., the Chicago-based custody bank and money manager, said in an interview...

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