Commodities are products that investors seem to view as interchangeable widgets. While a baker may have opinions about the source of his grain or a rocket engineer may carefully choose a specific aluminum for her satellite housing, investors tend to see commodities as equivalent inputs for products. A way to invest in this big-picture view of commodities in general is through PowerShares DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund (DBC).
PowerShares DB Commodity Index Tracking seeks to track changes, positive or negative, in an index tracking futures contracts in 14 physical commodities in the agriculture, energy, industrial metals and precious metals sectors. The exchange-traded fund (ETF) invests in a variety of sector-specific ETFs to replicate the index’s results.
DBC has lost 2.69% since the turn of the year, continuing a general downward trend from 2013. This retreat is to be expected, as commodities as a whole did much more poorly than the stock market last year.
Read more about this broad-based bet on commodities at Eagle Daily Investor.
