The commodity canary in the coalmine is falling over

One of the main elements of my Trend Asset Allocation Model is commodity prices as a real-time indicator of global growth. As well, John Authers recently wrote, "The commodity market is a real-time attempt to assimilate geopolitical developments, growth fears, and shocks to supply and demand, so it’s an important place to look for the next few weeks." So far, commodities have been elevated even as the global economy showed signs of slowing. The divergence is attributable to supply shocks.

We all know the recent story of supply shocks. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global supply chains and caused both a supply shock. As the virus first emerged in China, Beijing responded by shutting down the economy and its industrial capacity came to a virtual halt. Just as the world began to recover from the COVID Crash, the Russia-Ukraine war sparked another supply shock, this time in energy and agricultural products. 

Despite the supply pressures, commodity prices have finally started to fall. In particular, the cyclically sensitive industrial metals have rolled over.

Here is what it all means.

The full post can be found here.

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