Commodities In Review: April 2019

Coffee took the hardest hit among commodity ETFs.

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Reviewed by: Heather Bell
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Edited by: Heather Bell

February was a fairly strong month for commodity ETFs, with most funds exhibiting positive returns. The United States Gasoline Fund LP (UGA) led the way, with a return of 14.09%, followed by the Aberdeen Standard Physical Palladium Shares ETF (PALL), up 11.83%, and the Invesco DB Energy Fund (DBE), up 7.1%. The agriculture sector was full of laggard funds during the month. The worst performer was the iPath Series B Bloomberg Coffee Subindex Total Return ETN (JO), which fell 9.67%. The iPath Series B Bloomberg Cotton Subindex Total Return ETN (BAL) and the Invesco DB Agriculture Fund (DBA) took second and third place in this list, falling 3.69% and 2.78%, respectively. In terms of flows, the most dramatic was the $1.7 billion in outflows from the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD). The Invesco DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund (DBC) lost $285.3 million and the United States Oil Fund LP (USO) saw a decline of $154.3 million. The United States Natural Gas Fund LP (UNG) topped the inflows list, but only pulled in $57.3 million. It was followed by the Invesco Optimum Yield Diversified Commodity Strategy No K-1 ETF (PDBC) and the Aberdeen Standard Physical Platinum Shares ETF (PPLT), which pulled in $31.1 million and $30.5 million, respectively.

 

Source: Bloomberg. Data from 01/31/2019 to 02/28/2019. ETFs chosen to represent each sector based on the most liquid ETF in each segment of the ETF.com ETF Classification System.

 

Heather Bell is a former managing editor of etf.com. She has also held editorial positions at Dow Jones Indexes and Lehman Brothers. Bell is a graduate of Dartmouth college and resides in the Denver area with her two dogs.