Commodities In Review: August 2019

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.