IAUI's play: gold income without bonds as 30-year yields hit 19-year high

Thirty-year Treasury yields recently touched their highest level in 19 years. Inflation is still running above the Federal Reserve's 2% target, so a rate cut looks unlikely anytime soon. Into that stretch, ETF Trends's monthly income hub is making the case for the NEOS Gold High Income ETF (IAUI), a fund built to pay income without owning bonds. Long-duration Treasuries carry real risk right now, but income itself is still in demand. IAUI offers some of it, with a side of bullion upside and, at a minimum, pays holders to sit through gold's bumps.

Gold has done its part. It fell below $4,000 an ounce earlier this year before recovering, helped by a weaker dollar and falling Treasury yields after the US Treasury said it would increase buybacks of long-dated government bonds, ETF Trends reports. The national debt crossing $40 trillion for the first time, the article argues, could make the rebound durable. Rick Kanda, managing director at The Gold Bullion Company, says investors should expect more volatility through the rest of 2026 but gold should remain well supported; he advises watching interest rates, the dollar, and geopolitical uncertainty. Gold could push higher on lasting macro support, or it could get choppier if the dollar firms and rates stabilize.

The coverage lands the same week Neos shareholders weigh Goldman Sachs's up-to-$2.25 billion acquisition of the four-year-old ETF issuer, which would put IAUI under the bank's ownership, as ETF Daily reported. The pending deal adds consequence to a fairly straightforward product story: IAUI's income-without-bonds construction is being marketed into a Treasury market that is actively repricing. Neither article says what happens to IAUI's mandate if the deal closes, or whether an income-without-bonds structure survives contact with a new owner. If long-bond yields are peaking rather than breaking higher, the bond market may not stay painful enough to make the pitch necessary.