Commodities In Review: November 2020

September was a fairly devastating month for commodity ETFs, with only two funds racking up positive returns. The Aberdeen Standard Physical Palladium Shares ETF (PALL) was the best performer, with a gain of just 2.19%; followed by the iPath Series B Bloomberg Cotton Subindex Total Return ETN (BAL), which was up 0.61%; and the Invesco DB Agriculture Fund (DBA), which was flat for the month. At the other end of the performance spectrum is the United States Natural Gas Fund LP (UNG), which plunged 19.31% in September; while the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) and the iPath Series B Bloomberg Coffee Subindex Total Return ETN (JO) fell 17.5% and 14.57%, respectively. In terms of flows, the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) gained $1.1 billion, while the Aberdeen Standard Physical Platinum Shares ETF (PPLT) pulled in a far smaller $55.0 million, and the First Trust Global Tactical Commodity Strategy Fund (FTGC) increased by $38.5 million. Meanwhile, SLV saw outflows of $660.8 million, while the United States Oil Fund LP (USO) lost $161.4 million and the Invesco Optimum Yield Diversified Commodity Strategy No K-1 ETF (PDBC) dropped by $78.9 million.

Sources: Bloomberg and FactSet. Data from 8/31/2020 to 9/30/2020. ETFs chosen to represent each sector based on the most liquid ETF in each segment of the ETF.com ETF Classification System.