| Investors are being lured back to commodities after war and drought helped make raw materials the surprise best-performing major asset class in the first half. About $5.9 billion was added to raw materials investments this year, compared with a record $50 billion withdrawn in 2013, Citigroup Inc. estimates. Assets under management of about $360 billion at the end of last year rose to $365 billion through May and probably increased again in June, the bank said Monday.
While Citigroup and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. forecast in January that prices would fall or remain steady this year, Middle East unrest and pledges by central banks to keep interest rates low sent gold up 11 percent and boosted oil to a nine-month high. Lack of rain in Brazil lifted coffee 58 percent, helping commodities record the best first half since 2008...............................................Full Article: Source
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