The irrational commodities rally

Advertisement

The story so far for commodities in 2016 has one of extreme volatility. We began the year with a deep washout, some might call it a capitulation as concerns over US tightening and waning Chinese growth sent markets into meltdown.

Since then we’ve seen a spectacular counter rally with oil and iron ore up 50% and 30% apiece while base metals have lagged:

tvc_59f810ec0ca17c54450e9955aef25506

Big miners have soared as a result though remain a long way down from peaks:

Advertisement
tvc_0d1afca53f5bc611292668ae51efd467

The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers

$1 for your first month, then:
Cancel at any time through our billing provider, Stripe
About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.