Price Surge For Commodities Resumed Last Week

A broad mix of commodities topped returns for the major asset classes for the trading week through Friday, Mar. 25, based on a set of ETFs. The gain marks a shift for raw materials after declines for two weeks in a row.

WisdomTree Enhanced Commodity Strategy Fund (GCC) jumped 5.5% last week, outperforming the rest of the field by a wide margin. The second-best performer for the major asset classes: US stocks via Vanguard Total US Stock Market (VTI), which climbed 1.6%, the fund’s first back-to-back weekly gains since January.

Most markets posted losses last week, with bond suffering the deepest setbacks. The biggest decline: foreign government bonds ex-US shed 1.9% via SPDR Bloomberg Barclays International Treasury Bond ETF (BWX), which closed on Friday at its lowest level since spiking down during the coronavirus crash in March 2020.

The Global Market Index (GMI.F) continued rising last week, gaining 0.5%. This unmanaged benchmark, maintained by CapitalSpectator.com, holds all the major asset classes (except cash) in market-value weights via ETF proxies.

Commodities continue to lead the major asset classes by a wide margin for the one-year window. GCC is up a sizzling 43.5% over the past 12 months – the one-year leader by far. The second-best performer – US real estate (VNQ) – is ahead by 17.7%.

The biggest one-year loss as of Friday’s close: corporate bonds in foreign markets via PICB, which is down 12.0%.

GMI.F is up 4.0% for the trailing one-year window.

Profiling the major asset classes through a drawdown lens continues to show that most markets are posting deeper peak-to-trough declines than the current 6.5% decline for GMI.F.


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