Brian Luke
Senior Director, Head of Commodities, Real & Digital Assets, S&P Dow Jones Indices
Gold Hits All-Time Highs and DJCI Silver Tops 10% in November
“Silver and gold, silver and gold, Everyone wishes for silver and gold.” -Burl Ives My all-time favorite stop-motion animation show was the 1964 TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, narrated by Burl Ives. Playing the role of Sam the Snowman, Ives sang “Silver and Gold,” paying tribute to the work of Yukon Cornelius, a prospector…
Previewing the 2024 S&P GSCI Rebalance: Big Oil’s Mojo Is Back
Long-time investors in products linked to the S&P GSCI remain keenly aware of the outsized role oil has in broad commodity performance. Reviewing the projected weights of the 2024 S&P GSCI rebalance oil is expected to remain the largest commodity in the index. WTI and Brent crude oil are projected to swap positions and collectively…
D-FENCE! Investigating Commodity Performance under a Defensive Fed
I love this time of year. August vacations are over, the kids are back in school and football season kicks off in the U.S. The Fed took its August “vacation” at the Jackson Hole Symposium, where Jerome Powell’s remarks singularly focused on price stability. Inflation has come down but “remains too high” and the Fed…
- Categories Commodities
- Tags 2023, commodities, Fed Funds Rate, inflation, S&P GSCI
- Categories
- Commodities
S&P GSCI Mid-Year Recap and Lithium Added to S&P GSCI Electric Vehicle Metals Index
Surging futures activity on CME Group’s lithium contract allowed for entry into the S&P GSCI Electric Vehicle (EV) Metals Index. This milestone reflects the changing nature of indices to maintain a representative share of the global commodities market. The largest and most recognizable benchmark for commodities, the S&P GSCI, reviews contract eligibility for existing and…
- Categories Commodities, Thematics
- Tags agriculture, Brian Luke, cattle, cobalt, cocoa, commodities, crude oil futures, energy, energy transition, iron ore, lean hogs, lithium, livestock, metals, natural gas, nickel, real assets, S&P GSCI, S&P GSCI Electric Vehicle Metals Index, sugar, sustainability, thematics
- Categories
- Commodities, Thematics
Hedging Debt Ceiling Drama with the S&P GSCI SOFR and S&P GSCI Gold
The debt ceiling debate in Washington appears to be nearing an end. According to the U.S. Treasury, Congress has “always acted when called upon” and markets will look for them to do so for the 79th time this month. By index rule, all commodities in the S&P GSCI are traded in U.S. dollars, so the…
The “Devil’s Metal” Vanishes, Precious Metals Shine and Energy Dims: Commodities Quarterly Wrap
“Jamie ran on down to the LME, but the devil caught him there, He took Mr. Dimon’s Nickel bags and vanished in the air, Set out running but I’ll take my time, A friend of the devil is a friend of mine” -adaptation of Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil” Just one year after the…
Indexing Bond and Commodity Markets in the World of the Upside Down
In the 80s nostalgia Netflix hit series “Stranger Things,” the town of Hawkins is haunted by an alternate world beneath. The protagonists battle monsters in what they call the upside down. For the first few seasons, the upside down wreaks havoc on just a few residents of Hawkins. By the last season, no one is…
Good Things Come in Threes: Muni Bonds Appear Ripe for 2023
With one month down in 2023, let’s track the performance of municipal bonds so far: as of Jan. 31, 2023, the yield for the S&P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index was at roughly 3% (3.02% to be exact). The total return was up about 3% for January (2.87% to be exact), putting a dent in…
Paying Dividends: Measuring Rising Income against Declining Risks in the iBoxx Fixed Income Indices
With the ZIRP world1 firmly in the rear view, the “income” in fixed income is back. As yields collapsed to record lows, income-starved investors sought alternative sources of income such as dividend strategies, which attracted record flows in related products throughout 2022. Now, with investment grade bond yields hitting as high as 6%, bonds are…
Is Fixed Income Failing? It May Be Time to Look at the Index
Last year wasn’t the best time to hold bonds. Nearly every equity market delivered solid gains in 2021, while the S&P U.S. Aggregate Bond Index fell 1.4%. Nevertheless, flows into fixed income products such as ETFs were firmly positive. The leading asset gatherer was total market-type ETFs, with one in every three dollars newly invested…