Commodity update: Is the summer slump over?

Last update, we triumphantly proclaimed that commodities were “back”.

However, we did forget to add one important caveat, which is that they could still get hit hard in the short-term by the classic “Sell in May and Go Away” market sentiment.

In Q3, commodities as a whole entered a “summer slump”, returning -5.7% as measured by the GSCI (Goldman Sachs Commodity Index). Performance was dragged down mostly by agricultural goods such as wheat, corn, and soybeans, but also by uranium which had another poor quarter.

Despite this bump in the road, most commodities are still having big years on a YTD basis:

  • Silver, crude oil, and zinc are all up over 30% on the year.
  • Gold, palladium, natural gas, and nickel are all up over 20%
  • Uranium is the only metal in red, down over -30%

Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist