Commodities have been one of 2026's strongest asset classes, but the leadership sits in a different corner of the market than the precious-metals headlines suggest. Crude oil has driven the year's biggest gains, and the broad futures baskets that lean on energy have followed it higher. Precious metals, by contrast, are digesting an enormous prior-year run: gold is close to flat in 2026 and silver has given back ground since the spring, even though both still carry large trailing-12-month gains.
Uranium equities have cooled as well. The result is a year in which energy and diversified baskets lead, while metals and nuclear-fuel names consolidate. USO (United States Oil Fund), which tracks front-month light sweet crude futures, has returned roughly 103.9% year to date and about 88.4% over the trailing year — the strongest showing of any major commodity fund in this group.
Tighter supply and firmer demand lifted spot crude, and the shape of the futures curve meant the monthly roll worked with the fund rather than against it. This is a futures vehicle rather than a physical one; it charges 0.60% and holds about $1.8 billion in assets. Energy's strength flowed straight into diversified baskets, which typically carry heavy energy weightings.
PDBC (Invesco Optimum Yield Diversified Commodity Strategy No K-1 ETF) spreads exposure across energy, metals and agriculture and is up about 43.8% year to date and 49.3% over 12 months. It issues a standard 1099 tax form rather than the K-1 that complicates many commodity futures funds — a practical advantage that has helped it gather roughly $7.3 billion in assets at a 0.59% fee. DBC (Invesco DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund) has kept pace, up about 42.8% year to date and 48.5% over one year, and COMT (iShares GSCI Commodity Dynamic Roll Strategy ETF) is another diversified option.
Because these baskets spread risk across the whole commodity complex, they tend to be steadier inflation hedges than single-commodity funds. URA (Global X Uranium ETF) is up only about 2.8% year to date and 13.3% over the trailing year, and it has fallen roughly 13% over the past three months. The fund is not a pure play on the uranium spot price — it is an equity basket of uranium miners and nuclear-fuel-cycle companies, so it reflects the broader nuclear-buildout and energy-security narrative, including electricity demand from AI data centers.
It charges 0.69% and holds about $6.4 billion. Investors who want the physical commodity often look at the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust (SRUUF), which buys and holds uranium oxide (U3O8), though it is a closed-end trust rather than an ETF. Gold's big move came earlier.
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