(Bloomberg) — A basket of the world’s key commodities rose in 2024, helped in part to gold’s stellar run. Coffee and cocoa were top performers among raw materials, much to the chagrin of chocolate lovers and coffee drinkers yearning for lower prices. And crude oil stockpiles at the largest US storage hub have fallen to the lowest seasonal level since 2007.
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Here are five notable charts to consider in global commodity markets as the week gets underway.
Commodities Index
Despite impressive gains from coffee to gold, a key gauge of raw material prices ended up being close to an average year for performance. The Bloomberg Commodity Spot Index — which tracks 24 energy, metal and agricultural contracts — rose 6.3% for the year, reversing the decline seen in 2023. A rally of Comex gold futures, the biggest component of the index, helped lift the BCOM, though plunging prices for agricultural crops such as wheat, corn and soybeans limited the gauge’s performance.
Oil
US crude inventories shrank by 1 million barrels in the last full week of 2024 as stockpiles in the vital storage hub of Cushing, Oklahoma, held to a 17-year seasonal low. The dwindling supply has pushed up the premium of West Texas Intermediate futures contracts in the near term. The so-called prompt spread is hovering at three-month highs, signaling supply tightness.
Softs
Cocoa and coffee were the top performing commodities in 2024, with a relentless rally that’s sure to make chocolate lovers and cappuccino drinkers cringe in the coming months. Leading coffee producers have been looking at price hikes as one way to mitigate a surge in the cost of arabica beans, the kind favored by chains such as Starbucks Corp. Chocolate fans have been suffering the impacts of cocoa’s gains for months, with candy bars getting more expensive and smaller. That’s expected to continue through 2025. Coffee and cocoa futures rose Monday in New York.
Gold
Investors sold off gold-backed exchange-traded funds for a fourth straight year, with holdings declining 3.2% in 2024. While optimism of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve helped gold ETFs regain some ground in 2024, the US election results in November ended that momentum. A stronger dollar following Donald Trump’s election win saw a renewed selloff of gold ETFs, with bullion prices declining from an all-time high as investors redirected money, including into equities and Bitcoin. Spot gold fluctuated Monday.
Source: Five Key Charts to Watch in Global Commodities This Week
