Commodities

Industrial bio-inputs can improve commodity farming by replacing the use of agrochemicals. To assess the potential of agricultural bio-inputs to contribute to Brazil’s agro-industrial growth, we analyzed the market share held by domestic companies and the local market created by farmers who adopt bio-inputs. The results revealed that Brazilian companies accounted for 82.8% of the 221 companies with agricultural bio-inputs registered in Brazil by 2024. These domestic companies used technologies available to local investors and developed in collaboration with public innovation centers. Adoption levels among interviewed farmers ranged from 41.7% for biosolubilizers to 88.9% for bionematicides, revealing a large domestic market potential for bio-inputs in Brazil. We conclude that industrial agricultural bio-inputs represent an area of opportunity for Brazilian neo-industrialization based on local competitive advantages, low entry barriers, and domestic and foreign investments that can benefit from the local market for bio-inputs.

Technological advances in laboratory-grown diamonds (LGDs) have eroded the scarcity premium of natural diamonds, raising the question of whether diamonds still function as a safe haven. At the same time, crystalline osmium has become investable for the first time, as crystallization technology enables safe storage, certification, and global trading. Using monthly data from 2017–2025, we form diversified portfolios with and without diamonds and with and without osmium, as well as two-asset combinations with the MSCI World. The results show that diamonds no longer provide reliable stability, while osmium consistently contributes to reducing volatility. For portfolio investors, the key lesson is that traditional safe-haven roles can change; diamonds no longer offer robust protection, whereas crystalline osmium acts as a stabilizing component. These findings illustrate the contrasting effects of technological change: substitution and loss of value for diamonds, usability and stabilization for osmium.

We analyze extreme gold price movements between 1975 and 2025 using Extreme Value Theory (EVT). Using both the Block-Maxima and Peaks-over-Threshold approaches on a daily return basis, we estimate Value-at-Risk (VaR) and Expected Shortfall (ES) for the entire distribution focusing on a long-term view. Our results demonstrate that models based on the standard normal distribution systematically underestimate extreme risks, whereas EVT provides more reliable measures. In particular, EVT captures not only rare losses, but also sudden positive rallies, highlighting gold’s dual function as a risk and opportunity asset. Asymmetries emerge in the analysis: at the 0.99 quantile, losses appear larger in absolute value than gains. At the 0.995 quantile, in some episodes, upside extremes dominate. Furthermore, we find that geopolitical and economic shocks, including the oil crises, the 2008 financial crisis, and the COVD-19 pandemic, leave distinct signatures in the extremes. By covering five decades, our study provides the most extensive EVT-based assessment of gold risks to date. Our findings contribute to debates on financial stability and provide practical guidance for investors seeking to manage tail risks while recognizing gold’s potential as both a safe haven and a speculative asset.