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Real Assets: The State of Commodities

December 16, 2014

Commodity market investors received a ray of hope in the early months of 2014. After several years of consecutive declines, commodities, as measured by the Bloomberg Commodity Index, began the year on strong footing and posted a gain of 7.1% in the first half of the year. By the end of the third quarter, however, commodities entered negative territory, and the year-to-date return through November for the Bloomberg Commodity Index had fallen to -10.2% (Exhibit 1). In this newsletter, we examine the recent developments in the commodity markets and evaluate their prospects for the coming quarters.

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This chart description is for illustrative purposes only and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Please see full disclosures at end of PDF document in the web post. General description: Three-line chart showing cumulative return for various U.S. equity indices. Chart subtitle: Domestic stock indices enter correction territory after recent slide. Chart source: Bloomberg as of October 31, 2023. Chart description: Y-axis is labeled “Cumulative Return” and ranges from -15% to +10%. X-axis is labeled in monthly increments, from Jun-23 to Oct-23. Data ranges 6/30/23 through 10/31/23. S&P 500 Index is plotted in orange line, Nasdaq-100 Index in light tan line, and Russell 2000 Index in dark purple line. Most recent data points, respectively, -5.31%, -4.84%, -11.61%. Please contact us for the full dataset. End chart description. See disclosures at end of document.

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