Agriculture funds fell 2.9% while Teucrium's soybean fund rose 0.7%
Invesco's PDBA and DBA dropped 2.9% and 2.7% in the week ended Friday, September 18; Teucrium's soybean fund SOYB, holding 2027 contracts, rose 0.7%.
Teucrium's soybean-futures fund SOYB finished the week ended Friday, September 18 0.7% higher. Invesco DB Agriculture Fund DBA finished it 2.7% lower. Both are sold as agriculture. Only one is a soybean fund.
Last week's crop report is the hangover, not the rerun. November soybeans, the contract USDA enlarged on September 11 when it raised the 2026 crop to 4.53 billion bushels, gained 7 cents on the week even after falling 16 1/4 cents Friday to $13.03 1/2. That harvest month is DBA's largest commodity line. It is not the contract SOYB owns, and it is not why the diversified fund fell.
DBA holds November soybeans, cotton, and no cocoa
Invesco's no-K-1 agriculture fund PDBA, a $506 million fund, is actively managed and seeks to outperform the DBIQ Diversified Agriculture Index Excess Return, the benchmark DBA is built to replicate. It holds the futures through a Cayman subsidiary, so investors receive a Form 1099 rather than a K-1, and the listed fund's holdings do not name the futures contracts. It fell 2.9%. DBA, a $1.39 billion commodity pool, fell 2.7%. They finished 0.2 percentage points apart.
As of Saturday, DBA's largest commodity lines were November 2026 CBOT soybeans at 15.1% of assets, September 2027 corn at 14.7%, and July 2027 Chicago wheat at 7.7%. December 2026 ICE cotton, which Teucrium's funds do not hold, was 5.9%. July 2027 world sugar was 5.9%. December 2026 arabica coffee was 4.0%. There is no cocoa line.
ICE December cotton settled at 82.17 cents a pound Friday, down 6.9% from 88.22 cents a week earlier, per USDA's weekly cotton review. At 5.9% of assets, that drop accounts for about 0.4 percentage points of DBA's 2.7% decline.
Teucrium Sugar Fund CANE fell 4.1%. It holds March 2027, May 2027, and March 2028 No. 11 sugar, not the October 2026 contract that slid to a three-week low Friday.
December ICE cocoa settled at 5,327 Friday, down 7.7% on the session, a seven-week low. Farmers had shipped 2.14 million metric tons in the international marketing year that began October 1, 2025, through September 13, up 18%. Ivory Coast's own season, which started September 1, has been slower: arrivals at port through September 13 were 26,000 metric tons, down 45.8% from the comparable stretch a year earlier. DBA has no cocoa line.
SOYB sits in 2027 by prospectus
SOYB holds January 2027, March 2027, and November 2027 soybeans. Teucrium's published benchmark puts 35% in the second-to-expire CBOT contract, 30% in the third-to-expire, and 35% in the November after the third-to-expire, a mix the issuer says is designed to reduce the drag from contango. On September 11 the fund rolled November 2026 into March 2027. March soybeans gained 10 3/4 cents on the week.
That is a standing rule, not a one-week choice. The DBIQ index that DBA replicates selects contracts under a modified Optimum Yield rule that currently has soybeans in November 2026 and corn in September 2027. The two books do not split cleanly into front months versus 2027. They split where each rule set parks each crop.
Teucrium Agricultural Fund TAGS, a $22 million pool that holds equal weights of CANE, Teucrium Corn Fund CORN, SOYB, and Teucrium Wheat Fund WEAT and skips cotton, fell 1.1%. It uses the same deferred Teucrium calendar, holds no cotton, and has equal-weight sugar that lost 4.1%. Corn, wheat, and sugar, not the November soybean contract, pulled it below zero.
Week is Friday, September 11 close to Friday, September 18 close, total return.
SOYB is up 26.6% year to date against 10.4% for PDBA. WEAT is up 29.5% against 10.3% for DBA. Those 16 and 19 percentage point gaps are a construction difference, single-crop Teucrium books against a diversified DBIQ basket, and they dwarf this week.
CPER gained 2.7% as COMEX copper rose
United States Copper Index Fund CPER rose 2.7%. It holds December 2026, March 2027, and May 2027 COMEX copper, not the September front month. That September contract gained 2.25% on the week to $6.6150 a pound, its largest one-week advance since the week ended June 12.
LME cash copper settled at $14,529 a metric ton Friday, up 2.0% from $14,238.50 on September 11. The three-month price was $14,515, leaving cash $14 a ton above the later contract. LME stocks rose 20,625 metric tons on the week, to 255,100. Invesco's industrial metals fund DBB gained 2.1%.
A 2.9% agriculture week barely registered in the broad baskets. abrdn Bloomberg All Commodity Strategy K-1 Free ETF BCI, a $3.52 billion Bloomberg Commodity Index tracker, fell 0.1%. Its largest lines are December gold at 6.0%, January Brent at 5.5%, and November WTI at 4.8%; November soybeans and December corn are 2.7% each. PDBC, the $7.87 billion giant of the group, fell 0.7% and is still up 48.4% year to date.
The next USDA WASDE is Friday, October 9. Until then, the agriculture return you get still depends on which commodities your fund holds, and which harvest month it rolled into.
Frequently asked
Why did a soybean fund rise while diversified agriculture funds fell?
Soybean prices actually gained on the week; the diversified funds were dragged down by cotton, sugar, corn and wheat lines that the soybean fund does not hold.
What hurt the Invesco DB Agriculture Fund most?
Cotton, at 5.9% of assets, fell 6.9% on the week and accounts for about 0.4 percentage points of the fund's 2.7% decline.
Did the cocoa selloff hit these funds?
No, DBA has no cocoa line, even though December cocoa settled 7.7% lower Friday at a seven-week low.
Why does Teucrium's soybean fund hold 2027 contracts?
Its published benchmark spreads holdings across second- and third-to-expire contracts and the following November, a mix the issuer says is designed to reduce contango drag.