Courtesy of Pam Martens
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Terrence Duffy, Chairman and CEO, CME Group
During the current month of May, 2021, the following commodities have all set record high prices: lumber, iron ore, steel and copper. The volatility in the price of lumber this month has looked not all that dissimilar to the crazy price swings in the shares of GameStop, which have been under investigation for months by the U.S. Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees. Thus far, however, there have been no announced hearings into what is causing these wild moves in commodity prices.
From 2016 through 2019, lumber prices traded between $300 and $600 per 1,000 board feet. During just this month, however, lumber has spiked to as high as $1,733.50. It closed on Friday at $1,390.
These skyrocketing prices in commodities are more than a little peculiar. The federal government believes that the economy of the U.S. is at such grave risk that Congress needed to infuse $1.9 trillion into the economy in a stimulus bill passed just two months ago.
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