SPDR

George Soros’s hedge fund unloaded most of its gold holdings during the first quarter. At the end of March the New-York based Soros Fund Management possessed 49,400 shares of the SPDR Gold Trust against 4.7 million shares held at the end of December. A 5 million share stake in the iShares Gold Trust at the end of December disappeared completely from the latest filing.

At the end of Q4 the firm’s gold ETF positions were valued at over $774 million. Now, at the end of Q1 the remaining gold position was worth less than $7 million.

Gold firmed on Monday rebounding from two consecutive days, while holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust rose for the first time in two weeks, as investors entered the market to bargain-hunt.

The euro rose to its highest in more than two months on Monday, after upbeat data from Germany showed business sentiment rose to its highest in 20 years on the back of a manufacturing sector now fully recovered from the 2008 financial crisis.