FxWirePro Commodities Watch (Energy):

Understanding commodities are vital to gauge the performance of other asset classes such as bonds, equities, and even currencies. Since, 2014, any regular follower of financial markets would be able to recall that how devastating the drop in oil prices has been for many countries like Russia, Brazil, and Malaysia whereas net importer of oil like India has largely benefitted from it. Hence, it is of utmost importance to investors to keep a tab on the trends in the commodities market.

We, at FxWirePro, have been sensing a change in tide in the commodities market. After months and years of battering by traders and investors, this year, they are once again becoming the darlings. Many of the commodities have risen more than 20 percent this year and that figure in most cases will be much larger if we consider it from the bottoms, which were largely made earlier this year. A more than 20 percent rise from bottom technically indicates a change in the trend.

In this Commodities Watch, we present to our readers, the performance of commodities, which in turn decide the wellbeing of many commodity producing and consuming nations. For example, China is a major consumer of soybeans, so if the price goes higher, it may drag the country’s trade balance as it imports most of its consumption.

In this article, we evaluate the YTD performance of Energy segment.

• The best performer in this pack is Brent Crude (45.9 percent), followed by heating oil (43.8 percent), and WTI crude (41.8 percent).
• Natural gas isn’t far behind with its 34.6 percent gains.
• Gasoline RBOB is up 30 percent YTD.
• The worst performer of the pack has been Ethanol, which is up by 21.2 percent.

With a production deal being concluded by the OPEC, this pack is likely to gain further.

Energy as a pack is the best performer of the year, with an average gain of 36.2 percent.