US – Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has unveiled its new S&P Commodity Index (SPCI), which will measure price changes in a cross-section of agricultural and industrial commodities with actively traded US futures contracts.

S&P says it will add futures and options contracts based on the index this autumn.

The firm says the SPCI provides investors with a benchmark for accessing returns on a commodity investment, as well as an investment tool by which they can obtain exposure to a diversified commodity basket.

The index tracks 17 commodities in six sectors, including grains, meat and livestock, metals, softs, fibres and energy.
Priced in real-time, S&P says a key feature of the index is that it is geometrically calculated to protect against excessive risk that could be associated with large weightings of a single commodity resulting from a short-term price spike.