Gold’s slide costs US Shariah assets in Q1 2026

US Shariah funds in equities to fixed income, money market and real estate all saw higher valuations in Q1 2026, but AuM declines in gold and Sukuk still hurt the overall Islamic asset base in the world’s largest economy, the IFN Investor Funds Database showed.

Total portfolio value for US-domiciled Shariah funds contracted by 2.01% quarter-over-quarter (q-o-q) to US$212.12 billion from US$216.47 billion recorded in Q4 2025. The commodities portfolio alone declined by around US$5 billion, sliding to US$198.36 billion from US$203.32 billion.

Gold was the primary catalyst for the decline in commodities, with the precious metal’s prices coming off January’s record high of above US$5,605 for an ounce on New York’s futures market to a March low of US$4,100, before it ended the quarter at just under $4,663.

The drop in gold occurred as the safe haven lost momentum after the Iran war, which broke out at end-February, settled into a protracted geopolitical standoff that offered neither immediate escalation nor a definitive resolution.

While gold still finished Q1 2026 up 7%, its volatility through the quarter appeared to have weighed on the larger of the two US Shariah commodity funds tracked by IFN Investor database – namely the SPDR Gold Shares ETF. Also, the world’s largest gold ETF, its value dropped to US$166.05 billion in Q1 2026 from US$172.74 billion in Q4 2025. The ETF’s sibling fund – SPDR Gold Minishares Trust – rose relatively less during the period, to US$32.32 billion from $30.57 billion.

The broader Shariah fund landscape demonstrated impressive resilience. The equities sector led the charge with 15 funds expanding their footprints by 4.68% q-o-q to reach US$12.36 billion, up from US$11.8 billion.

Fixed income instruments posted the strongest relative growth, surging 15.81% to US$366.54 million, while mixed assets advanced 9.93% to US$12.84 million. Money market allocations increased by a modest 1.28% to US$365.65 million, and the single real estate vehicle grew 4.13% to finish at US$196.37 million.

The lone Sukuk fund was the only non-commodity asset class to register a decline, shrinking 1.82% to US$454.43 million.

The q-o-q divergence underscores that while localized front-line debt suffered from geopolitical reallocations, US equities and alternative Shariah vehicles managed to capture steady domestic capital inflows.

Table 1: US Shariah AuM by asset class, fund count and quarter