If prices start rising again, copper, corn, and oil could offer protection.
by Andrew Bary
Barron’s
It may be time to scoop up commodities, as higher inflation potentially looms under a Trump administration and the out-of-favor asset class underperforms stocks for a second year.
The Bloomberg Commodity Index, a leading gauge, is down 2% this year against the 25% gain in the S&P 500 index. That comes after a 13% drop in 2023, when the equity benchmark returned 26%.
Most retail investors have little or no direct exposure to commodities, even as so-called alternatives like private equity, real estate, and private credit prove increasingly popular with wealthy individuals. A Goldman Sachs survey of family offices—ultrahigh-net-worth families that manage their own money—found that they had just a 1% allocation to commodities, against 26% for private equity.