After a volatile start to 2020, many investors were looking at double digit declines and were probably re-evaluating their 2020 expected returns. But while COVID-19 continued to determine market sentiment, Q2 hosted a remarkable recovery. The S&P 500 (+20.54%) and the S&P MidCap 400 (+24.07%) posted their highest quarterly total returns since 1998, while the Read more […]
Bullish sentiment propelled the S&P GSCI higher by 16.4% in May, its best monthly performance in 11 years. The broad commodity index’s more than 50% exposure to energy was a key contributor to its performance. Energy led the way, with the WTI-based S&P GSCI Crude Oil up 55.0%, bouncing impressively off the lows in April. Read more […]
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 Read more […]
In our blog post from December 2019,[1] we highlighted the disparity seen last year between different sectors of the commodity futures and commodity equities markets. The second thing to watch highlighted the substantial 25% performance difference in 2019 between the S&P GSCI Energy and the S&P GSCI Equity Commodity Energy Index. However, so far in Read more […]
In this blog post, we present five eclectic thoughts for commodity investors to ponder as we look forward to the New Year and the start of a new decade. S&P 500® versus S&P GSCI Similar to the 1990s, the last decade saw equities radically outperform commodities. Prior to that, the 2000s were more volatile, with Read more […]
The attacks on Sept. 14, 2019, on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities have put the oil market back in focus for investors and policy makers alike. The event was reported to have been the largest single supply disruption in the oil market for half a century, crippling half of Saudi oil production and temporarily halting production Read more […]
In 2018, the U.S. set world production records for both natural gas and oil.[1] The growth in production is expected to continue and the U.S. is set to become a net energy exporter[2] by 2020, ending a 75-year period of dependence on imports. The increase in energy production not only shifts the dynamics of the Read more […]
In the first seven trading days of 2019, the S&P 500 had its hottest start since 2003. That happened following the Fed’s message that it was in no hurry to raise interest rates. The Fed met again yesterday signaling it might end the interest rate increases, which pushed the S&P 500 up 1.55% for the day (Jan. Read more […]
In the first seven trading days of 2019, the S&P 500 returned 3.6%, its 12th best start on record since 1928 and best since 2003. Also, the S&P MidCap 400 and S&P SmallCap 600 surpassed large caps by posting their best gains ever to start a year. Lastly, more than half the segments by sector, size Read more […]
The S&P 500 lost 9.2% in its second worst December on record – only behind December 1931 when the index lost 14.5%. However, the widespread losses across sectors, styles and sizes in the broad U.S. equity market was remarkable with every major segment down in December. Only 9 times in history has every segment of the Read more […]
