Tag Archives: cocoa
Commodities Start the Year on the Front Foot
The headline S&P GSCI rose 4.9% in January, as the industrial portion of the global economy continued to bounce back from the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns in 2020, and the prices of many agricultural commodities spiked higher on the back of record demand from Asia and the growing risk of grain…
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Industrial Commodities Benefit from Hopeful COVID-19 Vaccine News
November proved to be a good month for risk assets, including commodities. The headline S&P GSCI rose 12.0%, outperforming the S&P 500®, which gained 10.8%. Promising developments on the COVID-19 vaccine front and the U.S. election outcome rewarded risk assets such as energy and industrial metals, while safe-haven assets like gold lost some luster. The…
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Energy Drags Commodities Lower in October
The headline S&P GSCI fell 3.6% in October. Energy was responsible for the bulk of the declines in October, while agriculture continued to benefit from the return of demand from China, as well as weather-related supply issues. Across the energy complex, the rising number of COVID-19 infections, a second wave of lockdowns, and travel restrictions…
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Will April Pain Lead to May Gain for Commodities?
COVID-19 continued to wreak havoc across commodities markets in April. The S&P GSCI fell 9.67% in April and 47.92% YTD. Economic data continued to weaken into uncharted territory. Supply chains crucial to the flow of commodities from extraction to consumption experienced a sudden shut off and demand collapsed. Energy and agriculture underperformed, while metals offered…
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Commodities September – Short-Term Supply Shocks
Despite the largest one-day spike in oil prices since at least 1989, the broad commodities market only managed to climb modestly in September. The S&P GSCI was up 1.7% for the month and 8.6% YTD. The Dow Jones Commodity Index (DJCI) was up 1.4% in August and up 4.7% YTD. Rallies in the agriculture and…
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Happy Valentine’s Day: Cocoa Hits Lowest Since 2008
If you buy a little extra chocolate this year for your Valentine, your wallet will be as happy as your sweetheart. The S&P GSCI Cocoa is at its lowest level (closing Feb. 10, 2017) since Nov. 13, 2008. It is down 31.3% since last year and is the single commodity with the biggest loss in…
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El Niño Won’t Keep This Commodity Hot
Commodities have faced many headwinds this year from the strong U.S. dollar, high supply from OPEC and the slowing Chinese demand growth. The S&P GSCI Total Return hit a 15 year low in August, 23 of 24 commodities dropped in July and the 3rd quarter was the 3rd worst in history. For the year, all sectors are negative and…
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Climate Change May Destroy The Risk Premium
I fear the risk premium for agriculture and livestock may vanish sometime soon as climate change and El Nino drive up food prices. When investing in commodities as an asset class there are five components of return to be earned by using futures. While each component’s contribution to performance varies through time depending on the…
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COCOA Is The New Valentine
Perception might be that lovers everywhere have always enjoyed the confection of affection, chocolate. However, it has taken some time for many Asian countries to adopt the taste, but it seems now they have fallen in love. The Singapore-based Cocoa Association of Asia said that in the fourth quarter of 2013 demand rose 10% from Asia including Malaysia, Singapore…
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COMMODITY ZODIAC: Prosperous Horse
Happy Chinese New Year for all celebrating! As a special tribute, this post will focus on the fact that all 5 commodities that start with the letter “c” (the same letter China starts with) in the S&P GSCI Agriculture and Livestock have had positive returns in 2014. I picked the agriculture and livestock to symbolize the importance…
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