Investors looking for more evidence that a years-long correlation betweencommodity prices and financial markets is well and truly dead have found it this year in two of the industry’s more remote corners.

Fueled by extreme weather conditions in both hemispheres, benchmark U.S. natural gasand coffee futures prices have surged about 50 percent this year, after languishing out of favor for years.

The ferocity of the gains — including a more than 10 percent jump in both markets on Wednesday — has taken traders aback, with some suggesting that momentum traders andhedge funds may be rushing into a fundamental rally late in the game…..continue reading