Welcome to Thoughts on the market.

I'm Andrew Sheets, Chief Cross Asset Strategy

of Morgan Stanley.

Along with my colleagues bring you a variety of perspectives,

I'll be talking about trends across the global investment landscape and how we put those

different ideas together.

It's Friday, November 22nd at 2 PM in London.

Commodities are a unique asset class.

On the one hand, nothing could be more familiar.

From oil to aluminum to coffee and corn,

daily life involves constant interaction

with the goods that these markets represent.

But commodity markets can also feel different and detached from the wider world of stocks, bonds,

and currencies, driven by their own influences of supply, demand, weather, and a dozen of other

idiosyncrasies. Their lack of connection or correlation with other

markets is actually one of the arguments for owning commodities. They should provide

diversification. And on the surface, other elements for the year ahead look good as well.

We expect better growth in 2020 than in 2019, which generally means more demand for the things these markets represent.

And our foreign exchange strategists expect the dollar to weaken,

a helpful dynamic because most of commodity markets are quoted in dollars.

And if the dollar is worth less, it should mean it costs more dollars to buy a given amount of oil, corn, gold, or anything

else.

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