1st May 2017

Commodities lost ground over the course of April following an equally disappointing performance in March, as we see from the boxed-in section of our Reuters-Jefferies CRB chart below. The asset class is now down 5% on the year, with fewer commodities sporting year-to-date gains compared to March. Much of the decline set in during the second half of April, which is when the oil and gold markets both sold off. The decline in crude was more substantial than that of gold’s and exerted a greater influence on the index. A selloff in gasoline and heating oil did not help the index either and neither did continued weakness in some of the grains as well as the “tropicals”.