Commodities In Review: April 2020

Commodities had a few significant bright spots during February, but most funds ended the month with negative returns. The Aberdeen Standard Physical Palladium Shares ETF (PALL) was up a rather spectacular 18.42% for the month, trailed distantly by the iPath Series B Bloomberg Coffee Subindex Total Return ETN (JO), up 6.39%, and the Aberdeen Standard Physical Precious Metals Basket Shares ETF (GLTR), up 2.54%. The United States Oil Fund LP (USO) was down 13.50%, the Invesco DB Energy Fund (DBE) lost 10.53% and the iPath Series B Bloomberg Cotton Subindex Total Return ETN (BAL) fell 9.62%. The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) saw the highest inflows, pulling in $1.6 billion as nervous investors piled into the precious metal. It was followed by USO, which gained $277.1 million, and the iShares Silver Trust (SLV), which pulled in $107.6 million. Meanwhile, the Invesco DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund (DBC) saw outflows of $95.4 million, the United States Natural Gas Fund LP (UNG) lost $57.7 million and the iPath Bloomberg Commodity Index Total Return ETN (DJP) dropped by $47.7 million.

Sources: Bloomberg and FactSet. Data from 01/31/2020 to 02/29/2020. ETFs chosen to represent each sector based on the most liquid ETF in each segment of the ETF.com ETF Classification System.