FxWirePro Commodities Watch (Metals)

Background:

Metals form an important part of global commodities. Precious metals serve beyond their traditional usage and as a store of value or as a hedge against inflation. Industrial metals like Zinc are important gauges to determine the global economic activities.

In this FxWirePro commodities watch, we are to present our readers the performance of the various commodities, categorically classified, which are keys to understand the broader global economy. For example, copper is considered a barometer of global economic activity or gold is considered a safe haven.

2017 performance:

In this part, we present the metals, both precious and industrial.

• In 2017, the Best performer in the metal pack has been Palladium which rose 43.7 percent, followed by, Aluminum (28.6 percent), Copper (25.6 percent), Zinc (23.5 percent), Nickel (20.7 percent), and Lead (19 percent).
• Gold was up 11.1 percent in 2017, while the Silver was up 2.8 percent.
• The worst performer was Iron ore, which was down 6.1 percent, followed by Tin (-5.3 percent), and Platinum (-4 percent).

The metal pack was the best performer of 2017 with a 14.5 percent gain. In 2018, the Sino-American trade war has taken a toll on metals.

2018 performance:

• The best performer of the pack was palladium, which was up 12.2 percent.
• The worst performer of the group has been Zinc (-30.6 percent), followed by Aluminum (-22.2 percent), Copper (-22 percent), Lead (-20.6 percent), Nickel (-17 percent), Platinum (-15.4 percent), Silver (-8.9 percent), Iron ore (-3 percent), Tin (-2.6 percent), and gold (-2.1 percent).

As a whole, the metal pack was down by -12 percent in 2018.

2019 performance:

• The best performer of the pack is Nickel, which was up 15.7 percent, followed by Zinc (+10.8 percent), Palladium (+9.2 percent), Iron ore (+8.8 percent), Tin (+6.7 percent), Copper (+4.7 percent), Aluminum (+4.1 percent), Lead (+3.6 percent), Platinum (+2.9 percent), Gold (+2.7 percent), and Silver (+2.5 percent).

As a whole, the metal pack is up by 6.5 percent in 2019.