โCommodities, whether they are in the form of food, metals or energy, are an important part of everyday life. If you drive a car, you will be concerned with the rising price of crude oil, and a drought in the Argentinean soybean supply, like the one in 2018, will influence the cost of your next meal. Argentina, the worldโs third-largest exporter of soybean and corn, experienced losses of $600m dollars in 2018, losses that were inevitably passed on to the consumer.
Overall, commodities were on a mostly sound footing in the first half of 2019. The S&P GSCI returned more than 13% as of June 30, one of the best first six months in recent memory. The S&P GSCI is a composite index of commodities that measures the performance of the commodity market. The index made up of 24 exchange-traded futures contracts covering physical commodities spans five sectors. The 2019 sectors include energy, industrial metals, precious metals, agriculture, and livestock. Energy was the largest sector at 62.63% of the index. Agriculture had a 15.41% share, while livestock came in at 6.66%. Industrial metals accounted for 11.16% of the GSCI, and precious metals were 4.14%. In a repeat of last year, crude oil was the top performing commodity, up 28.76% as of June 30 (investopedia).
In the US, The Commodity Market Council (US) is focused on ensuring end-users are able to utilize markets that are safe, stable, and liquid, participating in the implementation of Dodd-Frank Act regulations by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and obtaining legislative relief from regulations on commodity end-users.
Demand for commodity trading specialists is increasing, with employment for all commodities, securities, and financial services traders and sales agents expected to grow by ten percent between 2014 and 2024.
