Thursday, November 19, 2015

"Goldman Sachs on Commodities: Not An Appealing Entry Point"

Agreeing with Goldman makes me nervous, I always wonder what we are missing but here I've gotta say, it's still too early. Too early that is except for legumes in India which seem to be rising due to both structural and cyclical price pressure.

Speaking of Indian legumes, did I ever tell you about the great guar squeeze of 2011-12? Back then men were men and beans were for frackin', not eatin' and.....where was I?

From Barron's Focus on Funds:
Gold prices rose today, with spot prices in London rising off a five-and-a-half-year low.
Yet while the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) and the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) both rose today, climbing 1.1% and 4% respectively, both ETFs remain weak. In fact, GLD is among several funds linked to precious and base metals, oil and other commodities that hit 52-week lows in recent months, a list that includes the SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF (XME), the ETFS Physical Platinum Shares (PPLT), the DJ-UBS Copper Total Return Sub-Index ETN (JJC) and the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG).
And according to Goldman Sachs analyst Michael Hinds and his team, now is not the time to jump into commodities.
…we don’t believe that current prices present an appealing entry point to position for higher commodity returns, despite the perceived asymmetric risk-reward at low spot prices and post such weak returns.
Commodity prices have been lousy across the board in 2015, be it oil, metals or agriculture. In fact, the weakness “far exceeded our initial expectations,” says Goldman’s Hinds. Blame it on the slowdown in China and supply gluts.

The S&P GSCI Spot Index, which is weighted based on world production levels, hit a 52-week low earlier this week, after falling almost 20% this year. And due to the ill effects of roll costs from contango, the iShares S&P GSCI Commodity-Indexed Trust (GSG) which is linked to the index, has dropped almost 28% in 2015....MORE 
Meanwhile, in China the action to keep an eye on is in mung beans and garlic.

Maybe add a bit of cumin for a delightful....wait where was I?