ETF Performance Report: October Tricks and Treats
After a broad correction at the start of the month, the equities market and stock exchange traded funds have pared earlier losses and is finishing out October with a bang.
Over the past month, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.9%, the Nasdaq Composite increased 3.1% and he S&P 500 added 2.1%.
The best performing non-leveraged exchange traded products over the past month include Elements MLCX Grains Index ETN (GRU) up 14.6%, Teucrium Corn Fund (CORN) up 14.6% and iPath Dow Jones-UBS Grains Subindex Total Return ETN (JJG) up 14.5%. [Overlooked Ratio Could be Signaling Upside for Corn ETF]
Soft commodities are strengthening off of multi-year lows, with grains prices now trading back above their short-term moving averages. After a bumper group year pressured prices, grains have been able to make a slight comeback over recent weeks on a slow U.S. harvest, a slowdown in sales and other coordination concerns.
However, many grain observers argue that the fundamentals point to continued weak prices ahead.
“Fundamentals remain bearish as the big crop keeps rolling in but it’s the charts and speculative money running the show,” CHS Hedging said in an Agrimoney article.
“The soybean fundamentals have not changed,” Another U.S. broker said in the article. “We are still looking at a record bean crop. Once this soymeal craze is over, we expect the bear market to resume.”
