Commodities update: May futures performance

An infographic look into the dark heart of the commodities complex, via Finviz' 1 month futures performance chart (period ending June 1, 2011). 

As you can see, May has been no picnic for much of the commodities world. We saw a notable sell-off in crude oil in early May, coinciding with the reported killing of Osama bin Laden. 

Speaking of energy, natural gas has shown some strength in recent days. While it was slightly down on the month, the relatively clean energy option for electricity, heating, and transport has moved higher since the recent nuclear catastrophe in Japan.

Some soft commodities, such as cocoa and coffee, sold off or remained depressed. 

However, orange juice futures were able to post some nice gains for the month. In fact, along with oats, OJ was one of the top performers among the Finviz-tracked futures performers (up 8.7% for the month).

Of course, anyone keeping up with the markets knows of silver's recent plunge off its April highs. While silver may have to consolidate a bit more before resuming its long-term upward trend, gold weathered the early May rout quite well, and is now within striking distance of its early May high of $1,577.40 an ounce. 

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