The Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index (^DJC) is a highly liquid and diversified benchmark for the commodity futures market. The Index is composed of futures contracts on 19 physical commodities (e.g. natural gas, live cattle, wheat, copper, silver, cotton, etc., see the full list and current weights here and see the chart above) and was launched on July 14th, 1998.
Blogging maven and fellow chartaholic Scott Grannis has been regularly graphing and reporting on commodity prices over the last six months, particularly copper, because he says that "Commodity prices are an excellent way of keeping tabs in real time on the progress of the global economy."
Here's a chart below of the Dow-Jones AIG Commodity Index back to 2007 (in semi-log format a la Scott), showing that the commodity price index reached a one-year high yesterday, closing at the highest level since October 14, 2008.
The one-year high for the commodity price index indicates that global commerce and economic activity are rebounding from the early 2009 lows, and that a global economic recovery is well under