While the everyone is busy scrambling in the equities space, base metals and related exchange traded funds are rising on demand for industrial metals and declining inventories of zinc and aluminum.
The PowerShares DB Base Metals Fund (NYSEArca: DBB), which evenly splits its portfolio with aluminum, copper and zinc futures, has gained 4.2% over the past month and increased 12.3% over the last three months.
LME aluminum futures were trading around $2,029 per metric ton. The iPath Dow Jones-UBS Aluminum Subindex Total ReturnSM ETN (NYSEArca: JJU) is up 5.0% over the past month and up 13.8% over the last three months.
Aluminum is trading around a 16-month high after the Chinese government announced a $161 billion loan to China Development bank to help fund subsidized housing, Wall Street Daily reports.
The metal is utilized in a myriad of applications, including roofing, wiring, window framing and electrical products.
Fueling the run-up over the past month, traders were concerned over supply, with inventories falling and producers cutting output after the slump in prices last year. Many expected demand would exceed supply and widen the deficit next year, Bloomberg reported.
Meanwhile, LME zinc futures were trading around $2,393 per metric ton.