Despite substantial market volatility and significant drawdowns in the first quarter of 2020, the S&P MARC 5% Index ended the quarter in positive territory (see The Importance of Asset Class Diversification: A Performance Analysis of the S&P MARC 5% Index). With markets staging impressive rebounds, we take a renewed look at the performance of the…
READ
Most constituents of the S&P GSCI posted positive performance in August. The headline S&P GSCI rose 4.59% on the back of increased inflation expectations and bullish market sentiment brought on by the S&P 500® reaching new highs. The performance attribution across sectors was evenly distributed. Inflation hedging may have been one of the key drivers…
As the recovery from the Global Financial Crisis edged forward in the early 2010s, inflation hawks warned about the “certainty” of an imminent spike in inflation following the aggressive stimulus measures taken by global central banks. Unfortunately for the U.S. Federal Reserve and some of its other monetary counterparts, that certainty never materialized, and it…
Despite the drop in volatility in many asset classes over the summer, some broke through key support and resistance levels. The S&P GSCI Gold (TR) was one of them, reaching a new all-time high of USD 1,056.83 on Aug. 6, 2020, eclipsing the previous high from the summer of 2011. The underlying gold futures had…
The S&P GSCI rose 3.8% in July 2020, taking its YTD performance to down 33.9%. Weakness in the U.S. dollar against a range of currencies supported commodities. The broad U.S. dollar fell to a two-year low at the end of the month. Lower real rates, a weaker dollar, and widespread fiscal and monetary stimulus measures…
Trend-following strategies have the potential to outperform during periods of crisis, and that is exactly what the S&P Systematic Global Macro Index (S&P SGMI) did during the COVID-19-related drawdowns. Here we will examine this index and attribute its performance YTD. The S&P SGMI is a trend-following strategy that takes long or short positions in 37…
Silver has soared since mid-March 2020, fueled by renewed industrial demand and investor appetite for alternatives to gold and government bonds. From its low in mid-March, the S&P GSCI Silver was up 65% as of July 17, 2020. The less precious metal, silver, has lagged gold’s recent multi-year increase. The more volatile precious metal has…
Risk appetite returned in the second quarter of 2020, spurred by the easing of COVID-19 lockdowns and aggressive economic stimulus measures. The S&P 500® rebounded, finishing the quarter up 20.5%, and yields on U.S. Treasuries saw little change. In commodities, the S&P GSCI rallied, with energy posting a sharp gain as oil-producing countries agreed on…
Over the past two decades, innovation in futures-based commodity indexing has allowed for the launch of commodity indices beyond broad market beta indices and into more sophisticated strategies with non-traditional roll mechanisms or contract selection. In that vein, S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) offers a wide variety of oil indices that offer exposure at…
This blog reflects on the actions taken by S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) to ensure that our commodity indices remain replicable and investable in light of the recent extraordinary market conditions experienced in the oil market. Perhaps no other investable asset has been as severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as oil—not equities, not…
SEE ALL
