Analysis · 17 October 2026

Shares and commodities: where the money went

ETFs keep taking over from mutual funds in US shares, and hedge funds have moved into farm commodities and out of metals.

Two shifts stand out in the latest figures on shares and commodities. In the US stock market, money keeps moving from traditional mutual funds into exchange-traded funds. In commodities, hedge funds have spent the past three months adding to farm commodities while cutting back on metals, and in the last four weeks they reduced positions almost across the board.

Shares: ETFs in, mutual funds out

US exchange-traded funds bought a net $1,288.5bn of shares in the four quarters to the second quarter of 2026, according to the Federal Reserve's Financial Accounts, up from $866.4bn in the previous four quarters. Mutual funds sold $1,163.7bn, nearly double the $618.7bn they sold a year earlier.

Households, a category that also captures investors not counted elsewhere, bought $1,523.6bn. Foreign investors bought $736.9bn, in line with the strong foreign demand for US shares in the Treasury's monthly TIC data.

Companies themselves changed direction. US non-financial companies issued more shares than they bought back in both the first quarter ($51.3bn) and the second ($153.2bn) of 2026, the first time since 2021. For most of the past decade buybacks had been a steady source of demand for US shares.

Commodities: into farm goods, out of metals

In the 13 weeks to 13 October, managed money traders in US futures markets added an estimated $24.8bn to their net positions in agricultural commodities, led by soybeans ($12.4bn), sugar ($7.5bn) and corn ($7.2bn). They cut metals by $7.8bn, mostly gold ($5.9bn), and energy by $2.7bn. Values use September 2026 average prices.

The past four weeks were different: net positions fell by about $27.3bn across the markets we value, with the largest cuts in gold ($11.2bn), crude oil ($6.4bn) and corn ($5.1bn). Hedge funds still hold a large net bet on higher gold prices, worth about $46.3bn.

Prices

Brent crude averaged $116.8 a barrel in September, 71.8% more than a year earlier, and European natural gas prices more than doubled. Copper reached $14,474 a tonne, its highest monthly average in the World Bank data on this site, which start in 2016. Gold averaged $4,319 an ounce, up 17.7% on a year earlier but below its February peak of $5,020. Coffee and cocoa were cheaper than a year ago.

What to watch

The CFTC publishes positioning every Friday. The World Bank's October prices are due in early November, and the Federal Reserve's third-quarter Financial Accounts are expected in December.

Sources: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Financial Accounts of the United States (Z.1), release of 11 September 2026; US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Commitments of Traders; World Bank Commodity Price Data (CC BY 4.0). This article is general information, not investment advice.

See the Equities and Commodities pages for the charts.