"Commodities" usually refers to raw materials used in industry - rather than what you see in your home. Even when it's sugar. All of them go back down violently

"Commodities" usually refers to raw materials used in industry - rather than what you see in your home. Even when it's sugar. All of them go back down violently - I think because the actors in these fields don't go half way. Not like consumer products where the buyers still have to eat and buy cleaning products and clothes. For example copper or steel prices change often harshly as industrial producers and industrial consumers adjust. A large mining company's decisions can significantly curtail world production (by mostly turning off mines that are temporarily not profitable enough) - sending prices higher eventually or quickly. Large industrial consumers can sharply curtail their orders when they conclude they have too large a stockpile or when they shut down lots of projects at once - like developers and steel for construction in China - just like they ramped up their projects like crazy a few years before. That tends to send prices way down because world consumption is significantly affected. This happened to manufacturers of oil drilling pipes when oil companies all slowed down exploration at once a few years ago - prices plunged until the stockpiles were exhausted and specialist producers were in deep trouble. Several large industrial producers can develop new mines (or semiconductor factories) all at once ... and soon later prices will crash. They all tried to exploit the previous high prices and soon enough something had to give. Consumer prices don't bounce around nearly as much. Some manufacturers sit half way. For example one that makes cereal fungus detection kits and that year the climate doesn't favor fungus. Well, the manufacturer is likely to cut production but not change prices because a lower price would not increase sales and the next year will likely be "normal".