Agriculture and soft commodities exchange traded products have been the best-performing commodities ETPs this year and that trend could be set to continue due to extreme weather conditions around the world.
Some agriculture ETFs saw increased inflows last week as weather forecasts highlighted the increasing probability of El Nino.
“Last week the Australian Bureau of Meteorology forecasted there is a 70% chance Australia will be affected by this summer for the first time in 4 years. With prices of many agricultural commodities likely to rise as weather extremes disrupt production, investors favoured positions in diversified ETPs,” said ETF Securities in a new research note.
Although the Teucrium Corn Fund (NYSEArca: CORN) traded sharply lower last week, ETF Securites said corn ETFs saw inflows as did soybean products. The Teucrium Soybean Fund (NYSEArca: SOYB) traded modestly higher last week. [Get to Know the Corn ETF]
“At an individual level, corn and soybeans ETPs saw inflows of US$2.9mn and US$3mn respectively. Corn prices fell almost 6% last week after the USDA improved the outlook for the crop and now expects a 13mn tons surplus in 2014/15,” according to ETF Securities.
Coffee ETPs also saw inflows last week, notes ETF Securities. Up almost 67% year-to-date, the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Coffee Total Return Sub-Index ETN (NYSEArca: JO) remains this year’s top-performing non-leveraged ETP.