Commodities

Having reached their highest point since August 2016 ($1,357.6/oz), gold prices slumped, falling below $1,300/oz and weighing on their 100-day average. Janet Yellen’s more hawkish speech at the last FOMC pushed up to 70% the likelihood the Fed will raise key rates in December...

After testing the $1200/oz. support in early July ($1204.7/oz. on 10 July), the gold price once again took on the psychological resistance level of $1300/oz. It brushed up against this barrier once, on 18 August ($1301/oz.), but not until late in the month did it cross it at the market close!

BlackRock has launched an exchange traded fund (ETF) providing exposure to a variety of commodity markets for investors seeking portfolio diversification tools, at a time when the correlation between historically uncorrelated asset classes is rising.

A recent drop in energy-related assets looks to be overdone. We believe this creates opportunities in selected energy equities and credit — even as we see oil prices trading mostly sideways in the near term.

According to David Donora, Head of Commodities, Columbia Threadneedle, after commodity prices bottomed in early 2016, demand is outstripping supply once again, suggesting the next bull market may be approaching...