Commodities markets. The broad commodities market staged a rebound last month – and the dollar kept strengthening. The U.S. Dollar Index gained another 1.12% in February to go +3.20% on the year. On the NYMEX, the big mover was oil, which had its finest month since May 2009, advancing 9.29%to erase some severe January losses. Other fuels did well last month: RBOB gasoline futures gained 8.64% and diesel fuel gained 8.00%.²

In metals, copper shot up another 7.58%. Other metals logged nice gains in February: gold rose 3.31%, silver 1.91%, platinum 2.25% and palladium 5.11%.²

It was winter, and when it came to crops, there was volatility. Pork bellies performed better than any other notable commodity in February, posting a 12.02% gain. Other commodities had banner months: soybean oil, +9.82%; wheat, +9.55%; copper, +7.58%. Sugar futures cratered, dropping 21.07% on the month. Orange juice was +5.51% last month and +11.27% through the first sixth of 2010.²

Housing & interest rates. Snow or no snow, the January numbers weren’t pretty. Existing home sales fell 7.2% from the previous month – on the bright side, they were 11.5% above January 2009 figures.¹⁶ New home sales dropped 11.2% to a record low adjusted annualized sales rate of 309,000 units – and that was a 6.9% descent from year-ago levels.¹⁷

We all knew mortgage rates would rise; it was just a question of when. Last month turned out to be “when”. By the end of February, rates on 30-year FRMs averaged 5.05%. As for averages on other kinds of mortgages, the percentages were as follows: 15-year FRMs were averaging 4.40%, rates on 5-year hybrid ARMs were averaging 4.16% and rates on 1-year ARMs averaged 4.15%.¹⁸

Oh yes, Fannie Mae asked for $15.3 billion more from the Treasury to keep its net worth in the plus column. It also announced plans to buy up as many as 200,000 delinquent home loans out of mortgage-backed security trusts in March.^19,20

Major indexes. Stocks made up a lot of ground last month. It was not only the S&P 500’s best February in 12 years, but also the NASDAQ’s best February since 2000. At the end of February, the real yield on the 10-year TIPS was at 1.48% – right where it was at the end of 2009.^2,21

% Change	2/10	YTD
DJIA	+2.56	-0.99
NASDAQ	+4.23	-1.36
S&P 500	+2.85	-0.95
10YrTIPS Real Yield	+13.85	0.00