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Glossary · Funds and derivatives

Commodity

A commodity is a raw material, such as oil, gold, copper, wheat or coffee, where one unit of a given grade is as good as any other, so it trades at one market price.

Also called: commodities, raw materials, natural resources

Live numbers, updated every night

Gold, per troy ounce
$4,105

World Bank monthly average, Oct 2026.

WTI crude oil, per barrel
$99.64

Spot price, November 3, 2026.

In plain words

A loaf of bread from one bakery is not the same as from another. A barrel of crude oil of the same grade is: no one cares who pumped it. Goods like that, interchangeable and traded in bulk, are commodities.

There are three big families: energy (oil, natural gas, coal), metals (gold, silver, copper, aluminum, iron ore) and farm goods (wheat, corn, soybeans, coffee, cocoa, sugar, cotton, cattle). Each is priced per unit: dollars per barrel, per ounce, per ton, per bushel.

Because they are interchangeable, commodities are traded on big exchanges, mostly through futures, and one world price, usually in US dollars, applies everywhere, give or take transport costs and quality.

Example

Why a commodity price can double

Commodities are hard to make more of quickly. A new mine takes ten years; a coffee tree takes three or four to bear fruit.

  1. Suppose the world uses 100 million barrels of oil a day and a war cuts supply by 3%.
  2. People and factories cannot quickly cut their use by 3%: they still need to drive, heat and make things.
  3. So the price has to rise until enough buyers give up: often by far more than 3%, sometimes by half or more.
  4. When new supply arrives or demand falls, the price can collapse just as fast.

Supply and demand that react slowly make commodity prices among the most volatile in the economy. See supply and demand.

One level deeper

Commodity prices move in long waves called super-cycles: a boom in demand (China’s growth in the 2000s, for example) runs ahead of supply, prices soar, new mines and fields open, and a decade later prices sink under the new supply.

A commodity pays no dividend or interest: a bar of gold or a ton of copper just sits there and costs money to store and insure. Over long periods, many commodity prices have roughly kept up with inflation, and some have lagged it. Over the 20 years to Oct 2026, 9 of the 18 commodities in the chart below rose more than US consumer prices.

Investors can own commodities through futures, through funds that hold futures (which pay a cost or earn a bonus when they roll contracts, see contango and backwardation), through funds that hold metal in vaults, or through shares of producers.

Commodity prices: the change over 20 years

From Oct 2006 to Oct 2026, in US dollars. Gold gained the most: +601%. Nickel did worst: −53%. The gray bar is US consumer prices over the same months, +67%: 9 of the 18 commodities beat it.

World Bank Pink Sheet, monthly average prices in US dollars, not adjusted for inflation; US consumer prices (CPI-U) for comparison.
The numbers behind the chart
Value
Gold601%
Silver393%
Cocoa276%
Coal246%
Coffee (arabica)203%
Oil (Brent)114%
Copper93%
Soybeans89%
Sugar68%
Consumer prices67%
Rice62%
Corn59%
Cotton59%
Platinum50%
Wheat50%
Iron ore27%
Aluminum15%
Natural gas (US)−50%
Nickel−53%

Why it matters

Commodity prices feed straight into the cost of living: fuel, heating, food and much of what factories make.

Many countries live off exporting them, so their economies and currencies rise and fall with commodity prices.

Big price jumps, as in oil in the 1970s, have often come before recessions and bursts of inflation.

A common mistake

Myth: Commodities always protect you against inflation.

In fact: Some do over some periods, but not reliably. Over the 20 years to Oct 2026, 9 of the 18 commodities shown beat US consumer prices. The worst of them, nickel, lost 53%, even before inflation.

Questions people ask

What are examples of commodities?

Crude oil, natural gas, coal, gold, silver, copper, aluminum, iron ore, wheat, corn, soybeans, rice, coffee, cocoa, sugar, cotton and livestock such as cattle and hogs.

Who sets commodity prices?

Trading on exchanges such as CME in Chicago and New York and ICE and the LME in London, plus big physical traders. The price is where buyers and sellers meet, and it reacts within seconds to news on supply and demand.

Is gold a commodity?

Yes, a metal traded like the others, but it behaves partly like money: most gold ever mined is still held as bars, coins and jewelry, and central banks keep it as a reserve.

Read more on BigCapital

DataCommodity pricesOil, gold, wheat and 20 more, monthly since 1960DataGold priceSince 1960, and against the S&P 500ArticleWhat actually beats inflationGold, stocks, bonds and homesArticleWhat got more expensivePrices that ran ahead of the rest

About the numbers

  • The numbers on this page are recalculated from the data every night; the sources are listed at the end of the page.
  • Aluminum: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx, sheet "Monthly Prices", column "Aluminum"; edition updated 2026-11-03; values through 2025-12 from the January 2026 edition (https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/18675f1d1639c7a34d463f59263ba0a2-0050012025/related/CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx).
  • Crude oil, Brent: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx, sheet "Monthly Prices", column "Crude oil, Brent"; edition updated 2026-11-03; values through 2025-12 from the January 2026 edition (https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/18675f1d1639c7a34d463f59263ba0a2-0050012025/related/CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx).
  • Coal, Australia: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx, sheet "Monthly Prices", column "Coal, Australian"; edition updated 2026-11-03; values through 2025-12 from the January 2026 edition (https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/18675f1d1639c7a34d463f59263ba0a2-0050012025/related/CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx).
  • Cocoa: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx, sheet "Monthly Prices", column "Cocoa"; edition updated 2026-11-03; values through 2025-12 from the January 2026 edition (https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/18675f1d1639c7a34d463f59263ba0a2-0050012025/related/CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx).
  • Coffee, Arabica: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx, sheet "Monthly Prices", column "Coffee, Arabica"; edition updated 2026-11-03; values through 2025-12 from the January 2026 edition (https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/18675f1d1639c7a34d463f59263ba0a2-0050012025/related/CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx).
  • Copper: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx, sheet "Monthly Prices", column "Copper"; edition updated 2026-11-03; values through 2025-12 from the January 2026 edition (https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/18675f1d1639c7a34d463f59263ba0a2-0050012025/related/CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx).
  • Cotton, Cotlook A Index: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx, sheet "Monthly Prices", column "Cotton, A Index"; edition updated 2026-11-03; values through 2025-12 from the January 2026 edition (https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/18675f1d1639c7a34d463f59263ba0a2-0050012025/related/CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx).
  • Gold: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx, sheet "Monthly Prices", column "Gold"; edition updated 2026-11-03; values through 2025-12 from the January 2026 edition (https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/18675f1d1639c7a34d463f59263ba0a2-0050012025/related/CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx).
  • Iron ore: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx, sheet "Monthly Prices", column "Iron ore, cfr spot"; edition updated 2026-11-03; values through 2025-12 from the January 2026 edition (https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/18675f1d1639c7a34d463f59263ba0a2-0050012025/related/CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx).
  • Maize (corn): World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx, sheet "Monthly Prices", column "Maize"; edition updated 2026-11-03; values through 2025-12 from the January 2026 edition (https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/18675f1d1639c7a34d463f59263ba0a2-0050012025/related/CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx).
  • Natural gas, US: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx, sheet "Monthly Prices", column "Natural gas, US"; edition updated 2026-11-03; values through 2025-12 from the January 2026 edition (https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/18675f1d1639c7a34d463f59263ba0a2-0050012025/related/CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx).
  • Nickel: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx, sheet "Monthly Prices", column "Nickel"; edition updated 2026-11-03; values through 2025-12 from the January 2026 edition (https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/18675f1d1639c7a34d463f59263ba0a2-0050012025/related/CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx).
  • Platinum: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx, sheet "Monthly Prices", column "Platinum"; edition updated 2026-11-03; values through 2025-12 from the January 2026 edition (https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/18675f1d1639c7a34d463f59263ba0a2-0050012025/related/CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx).
  • Rice, Thai 5% broken: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx, sheet "Monthly Prices", column "Rice, Thai 5%"; edition updated 2026-11-03; values through 2025-12 from the January 2026 edition (https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/18675f1d1639c7a34d463f59263ba0a2-0050012025/related/CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx).
  • Silver: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx, sheet "Monthly Prices", column "Silver"; edition updated 2026-11-03; values through 2025-12 from the January 2026 edition (https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/18675f1d1639c7a34d463f59263ba0a2-0050012025/related/CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx).
  • Soybeans: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx, sheet "Monthly Prices", column "Soybeans"; edition updated 2026-11-03; values through 2025-12 from the January 2026 edition (https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/18675f1d1639c7a34d463f59263ba0a2-0050012025/related/CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx).
  • Sugar, world: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx, sheet "Monthly Prices", column "Sugar, world"; edition updated 2026-11-03; values through 2025-12 from the January 2026 edition (https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/18675f1d1639c7a34d463f59263ba0a2-0050012025/related/CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx).
  • Wheat, US hard red winter: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx, sheet "Monthly Prices", column "Wheat, US HRW"; edition updated 2026-11-03; values through 2025-12 from the January 2026 edition (https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/18675f1d1639c7a34d463f59263ba0a2-0050012025/related/CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx).
  • Consumer price index, all items (CPI-U): U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index, series CPIAUCSL; retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
  • Crude oil price: West Texas Intermediate (WTI), Cushing, Oklahoma, daily: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Spot Prices, series DCOILWTICO; retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
  • This page explains a term. It is not investment advice.