What the next decade holds for commodities

Super cycle of growth across emerging markets bodes well for natural resources What a decade! A rapidly-urbanizing global population driven by tremendous growth in emerging markets has sent commodities on quite a run over the past 10 years. If you annualized the returns since 2002, you find that all 14 commodities are in positive territory. A precious metal was the best performer but it's probably not the one you were thinking of. With an impressive 20 percent annualized return, silver is king of the commodity space over the past decade with gold (19 percent annualized) and copper (18 percent annualized) following closely behind. Notably, all commodities except natural gas outperformed the S&P 500 Index 10-year annualized return of 2.92 percent. Last year did not seem reflective of the decade-long clamor for commodities. In 2011, only four commodities we track increased: gold (10 percent), oil (eight percent), coal (nearly six percent), and corn (nearly three percent). The remaining listed on our popular Periodic Table of Commodity Returns fell, with losses ranging from nearly 10 percent for silver to 32 percent for natural gas. Continue reading this story here.