BlackRock fund manager says he’s cut gold holdings to ‘almost zero.’ Here’s why.

“We primarily think of gold as a hedge against equity risk, and that works when you’ve got an environment with real rates that are flat or declining. If part of our view is that real rates normalize a bit, that particular commodity is unlikely to work as well as it did in the middle of 2020,” said Koesterich.

Near term, he said there are likely “better hedges against inflation in the equity market and rather than own an asset that doesn’t produce cash flow, we would rather hedge some of the near term upside with stocks that have pricing power.”

Those include stocks in the material, industrial and consumer sectors that “can raise prices as incurred costs also rise,” said Koesterich.

Among other commodities, the BlackRock manager said they see energy prices remaining firm and have been adding some tactical positions in equities to take advantage. U.S. oil prices CL00, -0.58% have climbed nearly 50% year to date, against an 8% drop for gold GC00, +0.20%.

Gold investors have this year battled against a stronger dollar DXY, -0.13%, which can make assets priced in the currency, such as gold, more expensive to overseas investors. Also working against gold, has been strengthening economies that could push central banks to tighten accommodative policies sooner than later. Investors are waiting on a Federal Open Market Committee meeting for next week.

Read: Here’s why the U.S. dollar could end up going almost nowhere through the end of 2022

Gold prices were slightly higher on Friday, up about $3.80 to $1,761.10 an ounce, after the sharpest daily drop in nearly six weeks on Thursday, following stronger-than-expected retail sales data.