These Assets Went Up How Much!?
February is coming to a close, and that means it’s the perfect time to recap the biggest commodity gainers and decliners over the past month.
First, let’s start with some of the biggest gainers…
Coffee
As loyal readers know, I’ve talked a lot about this commodity lately. Brazilian drought fears have investors pushing coffee into the stratosphere. In fact, the delectable bean is trading near $1.80 a pound- the highest price since late 2012.
The recent jump gave coffee an eye-opening 57.5% gain for the month of February.
Sugar
Since Brazil is also the world’s largest sugar producer, investors are pushing this commodity higher on drought fears as well. Over the past few weeks, sugar has jumped from $0.15 a pound up to $0.18. The recent rally put this commodity in second place for February with a gain of 22.2%.
Lean Hogs
Gains in the lean hog market are a result of higher prices in the beef market. With beef prices soaring to all-time record highs in recent months, consumers are trading down to the next best thing- pork. With demand for pork soaring, it should come as no surprise that prices are following.
Lean hogs gained a solid 21% in February.
Oats
This normally quiet grain market has been hot since the start of the year. Canadian oat farmers are contending with a two-month long shipping backlog, which is drastically slowing oat transports into the US. As a result, a short-term supply shortage is developing in the US.
Railroad companies blame the slowdown on the bitter cold that’s enveloping the Northern US and Canada. However, oat producers are blaming railroad companies for their woes, saying they’d rather transport more lucrative crude oil out of the Bakken shale.
Oats jumped 15.8% in February.
Soybeans
Strong Chinese export demand has soybeans on the run. Ever since the commodity dropped below $13.00 a bushel in January, China has made massive buys. Beans are currently trading at $1,399… up a solid 8% in February.
Silver
After spending January in a boring slumber, silver shot out of bed in February. In fact, the commodity had only two negative trading days since the start of the month. Much of the recent increase points to rising inflation expectations. Silver gained 7.5% in February.
And now for the losers…
Believe it or not, only two commodities lost ground in February- copper and natural gas. Newfound worries over the strength of the Chinese economy sent copper to a 0.6% loss.
As far as natural gas goes…
The commodity spent the first part of the month surging to multi-year highs at $6.40 mmBtu. But as I mentioned here, natural gas was set for a dramatic decline. Jittery investors had pushed the commodity too high, too fast. After rising 28% in the first half of the month, natural gas is ending February with a loss of 9%.
As you can see, it was a wild month of trading in the commodity markets!
Until Next Time,
Justin Bennett
Category: Commodity Trading
