Commodity Monthly Monitor – Dovish tightening to support precious metals

Your reference guide to commodity markets. Includes the latest outlook for each commodity sector and major developments for individual commodities.

Summary

• Agricultural prices took a dip while waiting for this month’s planting report as a new catalyst.
• The reflation trade for industrial metals takes a breather.
• Downside risks for oil as US producers offset OPEC cuts.
• Precious metals set to recover as net speculative positions rebound and investors look for signs of further Fed dovishness.

The surprise confluence of Federal Reserve (Fed) members’ views into a more hawkish rhetoric in the last month was particularly detrimental for commodity prices. This negative sentiment reversed when rhetoric from the Fed monetary policy announcement highlighted a dovish stance, implying a tolerance and preference for higher inflation relative to the costs of tightening too early. It highlights how sensitive commodities, particularly precious metals, are to US monetary policy and how much it is likely to govern the path for commodity prices in the coming year. We continue to believe, despite continued rate hikes this year that the Fed’s rhetoric will remain dovish due to heightened fiscal uncertainty.

Following a 5 year hiatus in commodities, the prices of broad commodities have recovered over the last year having risen 20% from their lows in early 2016. It now looks like sentiment, as measured by CFTC futures positioning, has moved from peak bearishness in 2016 to peak bullishness in 2017. The bullish positioning implies that we could see a short-term setback in commodities as futures positioning mean reverts. We believe the fundamentals remain attractive for the longer-term given that prices are generally below the marginal cost of production, global growth continues to improve and we are seeing the early signs of supply side destruction.

After the sharp decline in wheat planting for the forthcoming crop year, the market is eagerly awaiting the Prospective Planting report – that will be released at the end of this month – to see how much farmers may trim back on planting of other crops. However, in the past month most agricultural prices declined as production from the current crop year continues to exceed expectations.

The reflation trade for industrial metals takes a breather. Many of the best performing industrial metals last month reversed their gains this month as investors digested the impact of a month heavy with macro drivers: rate hikes by both the US Federal Reserve and China’s PBoC, downgrade in China’s economic growth target for this year, and disappointment with the lack of details surrounding President’s Trump infrastructure plans.

Downside risks for oil as US producers offset OPEC cuts. Oil prices have slumped as global production remains buoyant despite the announced output cuts from OPEC and some OPEC allies, like Russia. Further downside is likely in coming months as US oil production and inventories continue to increase and the motivation of OPEC producers to limit output wanes.

Precious metals set to recover as net speculative positions rebound and investors look for signs of further Fed dovishness. All precious metals fell by 4.6% on average over the past month as the probability of a US Federal Reserve rate hike became a near-certainty. While populism faced its first defeat with the Dutch election, the Fed’s dovish tone is likely to provide support for the yellow metal a little longer.