Morgan Stanley white paper on commodities for institutional investors and consultants
EXCERPT: Rising inflationary pressures, volatility in equity and fixed-income markets, and robust returns from many natural-resource assets have focused investors' attention on commodities as an investable asset category in recent years... This paper examines the value of maintaining exposure to a diversified set of commodity holdings as a strategic, long-term component of an investment portfolio. More specifically, we consider the prospects for long-term absolute returns from commodities, and evaluate this class of assets as a hedge against inflation and event risk and as a diversifier of stock-and-bond portfolios.
