No Brake to Beef Rally as Herd Contracts China’s stock slump has played havoc with the commodities market as traders fret that the economy driving global demand for raw materials is about to tank. The Bloomberg Commodity Index , which includes 22 commodities, everything from live cattle to natural gas, traded near a 13-year low this week as industrial metals and oil tumbled. Nickel plunged 9 percent in a single day. Here’s what prices have done over the past five days: Best and worst performers in Bloomberg’s Commodity Index over the past five days The increase in volatility has sent the cost of buying options to insure against bigger drops in the price of some commodities soaring. The table below shows the implied volatility for 90 percent puts on commodities, or options that bring protection against a 10 percent drop in prices. The higher the implied volatility, […]