There are 4 broad categories of commodities that exist; livestock, agriculture, energy and metals. The trading of commodities is the exchange of different assets by means of futures contracts and many other platforms such as mutual funds, ETFs and stocks. Commodities can be used as a form of hedge against market volatility as the price of commodities often move in the opposite direction to stocks. Commodities are known as being risky investments because their market is dependent on aspects that are hard to predict such as; weather, disease, and natural disasters. The commodities that are being analyzed today are Gold, Crude Oil and Coffee.

Gold: since the market opened, the price of gold has risen by 0.86%.

The commodity is trading within a fairly stable range, it is not forming any distinct trends at this point in time, this could be due to the uncertainty around the current war in the Ukraine. Likewise, the rise in the US treasury yield strengthened the US dollar and therefore the potential for higher interest rates are preventing people from jumping on the bandwagon and buying gold.

Price Of Gold Chart

Crude oil, Crude prices fell as much as 2.56% as consumers worldwide announced their plans to release crude oil from their strategic stocks.

The crude oil prices are falling in conjunction with the rising US gasoline stocks rising. However, whether or not the price drop is warranted is up for debate seeing as the US demand for oil remains high. At this point, it is uncertain as to which way the oil price will go (up or down).

Crude Oil Chart

The price of coffee futures is up today by at least 1.17%.

Coffee: Coffee is traded in the form of futures. Futures contracts are a form of commodity trading whereby there is an exchange of contracts for assets that are bought at an agreed price but delivered and paid for later at an agreed date. The price of coffee futures is up today by at least 1.17%. Perhaps the price hike can be explained by the prediction that there will be a poor harvest in coffee coming in the future. We should watch for the potential downshift in the balance of coffee prices due to the potential for an economic downturn, increase in consumption costs and reduced consumptions and reduced imports due to the War in Ukraine.

Coffee Futures Chart

Charts: finance.yahoo.com