Alternative Market Briefing

Commodity hedge funds on a bull run in July despite weak macroeconomic prospects

Thursday, August 16, 2012

From Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia:

Commodity hedge funds posted positive returns last month despite weaker macroeconomic prospects. But the bull run in the commodities sector was pushed not by strong economic outlook, but by the worst drought to hit the U.S. in 60 years, Tiberius Asset Management, a Swiss commodity fund manager, says in its latest market commentary.

Indeed the Dow Jones UBS Commodity Index advanced by +6.5% in July; and the S&P Goldman Sachs Commodity Index gained +6.4%. Not far behind was the Rogers International Commodity Index with a monthly plus of +5.8%.

According to Tiberius, at the individual commodity level, July was practically a mirror image of the previous month. "The four top-performing commodities were exactly the same ones as in June, and even had the same ranking: In the lead was corn (+28.3%), followed by wheat (+17.3%), soybeans (+14.9%) and natural gas (+13.3%). The petroleum complex (+5.1%) - i.e. crude oil, gasoline and heating oil – also boosted index performance in July. The metals, on the other hand, were once again the laggards. Thus, the four industrial metals represented in the DJUBS (aluminium, copper, nickel, zinc) lost between -1.7% and -5.3% in value."

The grain sector registered strong results over the past two ......................

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