Commodities In Review: November 2019

Commodity ETFs had a mostly positive September, with the worst losses occurring in the precious metals sector. The top performer was the iPath Bloomberg Cocoa Subindex Total Return ETN (NIB), with a gain of 11.24%, while the Aberdeen Standard Physical Palladium Shares ETF (PALL) and the iPath Bloomberg Lead Subindex Total Return ETN (LD) were up 8.5% and 6.74%, respectively. The iShares Silver Trust (SLV) had the steepest decline for the month, down 6.19%, while the iPath Series B Bloomberg Nickel Subindex Total Return ETN (JJN) was down 4.53% and the Aberdeen Standard Physical Platinum Shares ETF (PPLT) dropped 4.2%. The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) was at the top of the inflows rankings, pulling in $2.1 billion; while the United States Oil Fund LP (USO) was a distant second, with a gain of $180.9 million; and the Invesco Optimum Yield Diversified Commodity Strategy No K-1 ETF (PDBC) pulling in just $81.3 million. At the other end of the spectrum, the iShares S&P GSCI Commodity Indexed Trust (GSG) lost more than any of the commodity ETFs, with $87.9 million in outflows. SLV lost $78.8 million, and the United States Natural Gas Fund LP (UNG) lost $75.6 million.

Sources: Bloomberg and FactSet. Data from 08/31/2019 to 09/30/2019. ETFs chosen to represent each sector based on the most liquid ETF in each segment of the ETF.com ETF Classification System.