.jpg)
S&P Dow Jones Indices has published the latest Commodities Performance Highlights – July 2019, a monthly note on Commodities updates.
Highlights
- The S&P GSCI was down 0.2% for the month and 13.1% YTD.
- The Dow Jones Commodity Index (DJCI) was down 0.8% in July and up 6.1% YTD, reflecting its lower energy weighting.
- The S&P GSCI Petroleum ended the month up 0.7%. Oil prices have remained relatively stable despite a serious escalation of geopolitical tensions.
- The S&P GSCI Nickel was the big outperformer in July, up 14.4% on the back of a widening global market deficit and the ongoing contraction in visible inventories.
- After the U.S. Fed cut rates as expected amidst a revival of global central bank easing, gold’s performance cooled slightly into the end of the month.
- The S&P GSCI Silver spiked 7.1% higher in July, with some speculators betting silver will catch up to gold’s double-digit YTD performance.
- It was a poor month for agricultural commodities, with the S&P GSCI Agriculture falling 5.5%.
Fiona Boal, Head of Commodities and Real Assets at S&P Dow Jones Indices comments: “The S&P GSCI Industrial Metals ended the month up marginally. However, there has been one notable exception; the S&P GSCI Nickel was the big outperformer in July, up 14.4% on the back of a widening global market deficit and the ongoing contraction in visible inventories. Nickel inventories at the London Metal Exchange are the lowest since January 2013, having fallen by 30% since the beginning of 2019. Little progress at the Sino-U.S. trade talks at the end of July and the Chinese Purchasing Managers’ Index suggesting another month of contraction in manufacturing activity present significant head winds for industrial metals into the end of the year.”
