It was a losing month for many commodities, led by the old stagers in gold and oil, but assisted by the major grains and cotton.
According to Bloomberg, commodity prices fell by around 5% in July, but there were some surprises.
Oil fell to a four month low, gold weakened, copper was up a touch and major grains had double digit falls.
But iron ore posted a second straight monthly increase in July.
Benchmark iron ore with 62% Fe content delivered to Tianjin rose 1.9% last month, according to data from The Steel Index.
That was after a 2.2% rise in June, which ended price falls from January to May.
Iron ore fell 0.3% overnight Thursday to $US95.60 a dry tonne, taking the loss this year to 29%.
US oil futures in New York dropped more than $US2 (or more than 2%) to just over $US98 a barrel, ending two months of gains and down a massive 6.8% in July.
In London Brent crude fell to $US106.02 a barrel, down 5.6% for the month, ending three months of gains
While Comex gold futures in New York fell $US13.60, or 1.1%, to settle at $US1,281.30 an ounce for a 3.1% monthly drop in July.
Comex September silver shed 19 cents to $US20.41 an ounce to be down 3.1% last month.
Gold later edged higher in electronic trading where it finished down $US11 at $US1,286 an ounce.
Comex copper ended July up 0.9%, after ending the month at $US3.23 a pound in New York.
That was the 4th straight monthly gain which has come despite a slowing in the pace of Chinese purchases in the past three months.
Nickel for delivery in three months on the LME fell 2.4% overnight to settle at $US18,505 a tonne. That boosted the July fall to 2.8%.
But the metal is still up 33% so far in 2014.
Grains were weak with US corn futures down 14%, wheat futures lost 8.2% and soybeans fell 6.5%. – the reasons for the falls were solid US crop prospects, high global stocks and no signs of a shortage, even after taking into account the fighting in Ukraine, which is a major wheat exporter.
New York cotton prices also lost 14% in July.
