Commodities are on a run with Cocoa Futures (CC=F) topping $8,000 per metric ton and Copper Futures (HG=F) hitting its highest level in almost a year. Oil prices (BZ=F, CL=F) have also been rising this week, at one point topping over $80 per barrel. Path Trading Partners Co-Founder Bob Iaccino and Blue Line Futures Chief Market Strategist Phillip Streible join Yahoo Finance to discuss how investors should position themselves within the commodity sector. Streible states that oil's rise is a simple function of supply and demand, highlighting a few demand-side drivers: "Resiliency of the US economy has helped to support demand. We've got driving season right here. Any kind of interest rate cut could really be a tailwind for the crude oil market. If you get some of this loan, some of this debt burden behind us with lower interest rates, people are gonna have more money to spend and they're probably going to do it the easiest way, which is travel. So we are starting to see 2024 demand increasing. And we could see upward revisions in '25 and 2026." Investors may look to the futures market or to ETFs to join the oil rally, Iaccino explains: "I always advise people the thing that's 100% correlated to crude oil is crude oil. So the best place...to play that out is WTI crude (MCL=F), that's my favorite. But, for the average investor, you can look at USO, that's one of the ETFs people generally default to." For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live. Editor's note: This article was written by Nicholas Jacobino
Sports drink brand BodyArmor announced Thursday it is launching a sugar-free and carb-free version of its popular beverage.
Global prices for food commodities like grain and vegetable oil fell last year from record highs in 2022, when Russia’s war in Ukraine, drought and other factors helped worsen hunger worldwide, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday. The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of commonly traded food commodities, was 13.7% lower last year than the 2022 average, but its measures of sugar and rice prices growing in that time. The drop in food commodity prices in 2023 comes despite a difficult year for food security around the world.