I thought it would be instructive to look at the relative performance of commodities over select time frames and then to look at this in the wider context. For those not familiar with the CRB Index it is a weighted commodity index with the predominant weighting being energy related issues such as crude. This weighting reflects the economic importance of energy versus other commodities such as the soft or agricultural commodity.
The chart below is the CRB as of last night on weekly scale – I have annotated the impact of various commodities upon the index. Due to the nature of the weightings other commodities have to work very hard to overcome the impact of energy issues and their weighting.
These are the relative performance of various commodities over one month, six months and a year. You can see the strong performance of the metals and cotton, coffee, wheat, etc.
The thing to note about the CRB Index is that it is a tradeable vehicle and does give very broad exposure to commodities. The stockmarket is not the only game in town.
