Commodities In Review: July August 2020

Commodity ETFs had a fairly good month in June, with all but five funds landing in positive territory. The top performer was the United State Gasoline Fund LP (UGA), which was up 12.2%, followed by the iPath Series B Bloomberg Copper Subindex Total Return ETN (JJC) and the iPath Series B Bloomberg Tin Subindex Total Return ETN (JJT), up 11.57% and 9.30%, respectively. Meanwhile, the worst performers were the United States Natural Gas Fund LP (UNG), down 9.36%; the iPath Bloomberg Cocoa Subindex Total Return ETN (NIB), down 9.33%; and the Aberdeen Standard Physical Platinum Shares ETF (PPLT) and the Invesco DB Agriculture Fund (DBA), both down 1.13%. Flows were decidedly uneven during the month, with the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) pulling in a whopping $3.1 billion; followed very distantly by the iShares Silver Trust (SLV), which gained $621.1 million; and UNG, which gained $82.4 million. The United States Oil Fund LP (USO) lost $463.9 million, while the WisdomTree Continuous Commodity Index Fund (GCC) lost $6.2 million. The United States Commodity Index Fund (USCI), JJT and the iPath Bloomberg Lead Subindex Total Return ETN (LD) all were flat with regard to flows for the month, a rarity indeed.

Sources: Bloomberg and FactSet. Data from 5/31/2020 to 6/30/2019. ETFs chosen to represent each sector based on the most liquid ETF in each segment of the ETF.com ETF Classification System.