Following a January rally, the
global commodities complex underwent declines in February before partially recovering in March; for the first quarter as a whole, the benchmark Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index (CRB) gained 0.8 % on a
price - only basis.1 Among the 19 component
commodities tracked by the CRB, advancers had a slight edge over decliners, buoyed by growth in
global economies and weakness in the trade - weighted US dollar, which retreated 2.1 %, according to the Federal Reserve's (Fed's) US Dollar Index.1 Aside from robust gains for a host of agricultural products, oil and gold were also among the
commodity winners.