By Sumit Roy
Just six of the 22 major commodities appreciated last year.
The past year was a mixed bag for commodities investors. On the one hand, most commodities fell. Of the 22 major commodities we follow, a mere six registered gains in 2011. On the other hand, investor favorites — gold and oil — both managed to put in very solid advances in the year.
Indeed, Brent crude oil took the top spot for the year, with a 13.3 percent gain, while gold took the third spot, with a 10.1 percent increase.
Even West Texas Intermediate (WTI) finished with a respectable 8.2 percent gain as a year-end surge in the oil benchmark helped it make up for infrastructure-bottleneck-related underperformance earlier in 2011.
It’s also worth noting that many commodities finished 2010 at elevated levels after having risen swiftly off the lows following the 2008/2009 financial crisis and global recession. In that context, the poor performance in 2011 can be seen as a correction in a larger uptrend rather than a trend itself.
2011 Commodity Performance (Grouped By Sector)
| Commodity | Price at end of 2010 | Price at end of 2011 | Change for the year |
| Brent | 94.75 | 107.38 | 13.33% |
| Live Cattle | 107.9 | 121.45 | 12.56% |
| Gold | 1420.78 | 1563.7 | 10.06% |
| WTI | 91.38 | 98.83 | 8.15% |
| Lean Hogs | 79.75 | 84.3 | 5.71% |
| Corn | 629 | 646.5 | 2.78% |
| Coffee | 240.5 | 226.85 | -5.68% |
| Silver | 30.92 | 27.84 | -9.96% |
| Soybeans | 1393.75 | 1198.5 | -14.01% |
| Wheat | 794.25 | 652.75 | -17.82% |
| Palladium | 801.75 | 655.25 | -18.27% |
| Aluminum | 2460.75 | 1994.5 | -18.95% |
| Platinum | 1770.25 | 1401 | -20.86% |
| Lead | 2563.5 | 2011 | -21.55% |
| Copper | 444.7 | 343.6 | -22.73% |
| Nickel | 24708 | 18724 | -24.22% |
| Zinc | 2444 | 1827.25 | -25.24% |
| Sugar | 32.12 | 23.3 | -27.46% |
| Tin | 26920 | 19148 | -28.87% |
| Cocoa | 3035 | 2109 | -30.51% |
| NG | 4.41 | 2.99 | -32.20% |
| Cotton | 144.81 | 91.8 | -36.61% |
2011 Commodity Performance (Ranked)
| Rank | Commodity | Performance |
| 1 | Brent | 13.33% |
| 2 | Live Cattle | 12.56% |
| 3 | Gold | 10.06% |
| 4 | WTI | 8.15% |
| 5 | Lean Hogs | 5.71% |
| 6 | Corn | 2.78% |
| 7 | Coffee | -5.68% |
| 8 | Silver | -9.96% |
| 9 | Soybeans | -14.01% |
| 10 | Wheat | -17.82% |
| 11 | Palladium | -18.27% |
| 12 | Aluminum | -18.95% |
| 13 | Platinum | -20.86% |
| 14 | Lead | -21.55% |
| 15 | Copper | -22.73% |
| 16 | Nickel | -24.22% |
| 17 | Zinc | -25.24% |
| 18 | Sugar | -27.46% |
| 19 | Tin | -28.87% |
| 20 | Cocoa | -30.51% |
| 21 | NG | -32.20% |
| 22 | Cotton | -36.61% |
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