The price of wheat leaped to a record high, taking a commodity exchange traded fund (ETF) to greater heights along with it.

On Friday, the Agriculture Department forecast that supplies will drop 40% from last year to a 60-year low in May,  according to Trang Ho for Investor’s Business Daily. With that news, the PowerShares DB Commodity Index (DBC) hit a new high Friday.

The price of wheat has already doubled in the past year. Corn, soybeans, gold and platinum have also soared to new levels. With the current inflationary cycle heating up, commodities are viewed as more valuable than paper money.

Commodities via ETFs are often seen by investors as a safe haven, as they are not correlated to the direction of the U.S. stock market. DBC buys futures contracts of six highly traded commodities: crude oil, heating oil, wheat, corn, aluminum and gold.

There are numerous other ways to gain exposure to commodities through ETFs, either directly or through funds diversified across several commodities. A few of them:

• PowerShares DB Agriculture (DBA), up 18.3% year-to-date
• streetTRACKS Gold Shares (GLD), up 10.4% year-to-date
• iShares Silver Trust (SLV), up 15.9% year-to-date

For full disclosure, some of Tom Lydon’s clients own DBA.

Tags: Agriculture, Corn, DBA, Energy, GLD, Material ETFs, Metals, Oil, Platinum, Rating Services, Silver, Wheat

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