Skip to main content

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. 







That's a wrap. Thanks for checking in. You can follow Finance Trends on Twitter and StockTwits for more real-time info on the precious metals and investment markets.

Popular posts from this blog

Nasdaq credit rating junked.

S&P cut Nasdaq's credit rating to junk status citing debt burdens and its questionable strategy to buy a controlling interest in the London Stock Exchange. Financial Times reported that the exchange's counterparty credit & bank loan rating were lowered fromm BBB- (lowest investment grade rating) to BB+. The change will increase Nasdaq's borrowing costs should it wish to pursue aquisition targets. For an earlier look at the exchange consolidation trend that brought about Nasdaq's push for a stake in the LSE, please see "Exchange fever" .

Clean Money - John Rubino: Book review

Clean Money by John Rubino 274 pages. Hoboken, New Jersey John Wiley & Sons. 2009. 1st Edition. The bouyant stock market environment of the past several years is gone, and the financial wreckage of 2008 is still sharp in our minds as a new year starts to unfold. Given the recent across-the-board-declines in global stock markets (and most asset classes) that have left many investors shell-shocked, you might wonder if there is any good reason to consider the merits of a hot new investment theme, such as clean energy. However, we shouldn't be too hasty to write off all future stock investments. After all, the market declines of 2008 may continue into 2009, but they may also leave interesting investment opportunities in their wake. Which brings us to the subject of this review. John Rubino, author and editor of GreenStockInvesting.com , recently released a new book on renewable energy and clean-tech investing entitled, Clean Money: Picking Winners in the Green Tech Boom . In Clean ...

Jesse Livermore: How to Trade in Stocks (1940 Ed. E-book)

If you've been around markets for any length of time, you've probably heard of 20th century supertrader, Jesse Livermore . Today we're highlighting his rare 1940 work, How to Trade in Stocks (ebook, pdf). But first, a brief overview of Livermore's life and trading career (bio from Jesse Livermore's Wikipedia entry). "During his lifetime, Livermore gained and lost several multi-million dollar fortunes. Most notably, he was worth $3 million and $100 million after the 1907 and 1929 market crashes, respectively. He subsequently lost both fortunes. Apart from his success as a securities speculator, Livermore left traders a working philosophy for trading securities that emphasizes increasing the size of one's position as it goes in the right direction and cutting losses quickly. Ironically, Livermore sometimes did not follow his rules strictly. He claimed that lack of adherence to his own rules was the main reason for his losses after making his 1907 and...