After much economic activity this week, the Fed announced inflation moved “somewhat closer” to the objective and is showing signs of firming after running below its 2% target for the past two years. In the last June report from the United States Department of Labor, food prices continued to increase although at a slower pace and unleaded gasoline prices had Read more […]
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 Read more […]
Finally, in April, commodities got hot enough to turn around even the base metals (also known as the industrial metals,) up 1.8% for the month. Although this comeback is not driven by the main supply shocks we are experiencing in energy and agriculture, it is fundamental in nature. China’s State Reserves Bureau (SRB) is now buying copper Read more […]
It is no surprise that now might be the perfect environment for brewing commodities. The S&P GSCI was up 4.5% in February and was in backwardation for the first time in February since 2004. In 2004, the S&P GSCI returned 17.3%. 22 of 24 commodities in the S&P GSCI were positive in February. All 5 sectors were positive, led by agriculture, Read more […]
Psychologists have studied feelings of Olympic medalists for decades to find: “If you set aside the happy people who win gold and look only at the people who come in second and third, it’s the men and women with bronze medals who invariably look happier than the athletes who won silver.” To investors who have Read more […]
There are too many funny coffee jokes to single one out but this one I found seriously relevant: Though I take my coffee black, I also take it seriously since it is one of the commodities in the S&P GSCI and DJ-UBS. Coffee has been the best performing commodity this year, up 23.9%. As I Read more […]
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 Read more […]
Sorry, grains and meats, you are not one of the four main food groups. Since this is the case, eating may have just become more expensive, especially for the high-end chocolate lover. Not me of course… but once again, as a commodity lady, when I consume goods (or goodies) and notice that prices are increasing Read more […]
August was a hot month for commodities from the Syrian unrest and the heat. In the risk on – risk off environment created by the quantitative easing, the sentiment has shifted to risk off. While that is not good news for some economically sensitive commodities like copper, it is great news for others like precious Read more […]