Commodities In Review: August 2019
June was an upbeat month for commodity ETFs.
June was mostly positive for commodity ETFs, with select weak spots in the agriculture and energy sectors. The only fund to register double-digit returns was the Aberdeen Standard Physical Palladium Shares ETF (PALL), with an increase of 11.19%. It was followed by the United States Oil Fund LP (USO) and the United States Gasoline Fund LP (UGA), up 9.03% and 8.80%, respectively. Interestingly, despite two of the best performers being in the energy sector, the worst performer was the United States Natural Gas Fund LP (UNG), which was down 5.61%. Meanwhile, the iPath Series B Bloomberg Cotton Subindex Total Return ETN (BAL) was down 2.05% and the Invesco DB Agriculture Fund (DBA) was down 0.47%. The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) saw the most inflows, with a gain of $2.2 billion; the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) pulled in $171 million; and UNG gained $88.6 million. Outflows were more muted, with the iShares S&P GSCI Commodity Indexed Trust (GSG) losing $81 million, the Invesco DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund (DBC) dipping $64.2 million and the Invesco DB Base Metals Fund (DBB) dropping $21.4 million.
Sources: Bloomberg and FactSet. Data from 05/31/2019 to 06/30/2019. ETFs chosen to represent each sector based on the most liquid ETF in each segment of the ETF.com ETF Classification System.