Three of the Rarest Metals Are Beating Most Commodities: Chart

(Bloomberg) -- Some of this year’s best performing metals are ones you may not have heard of: ruthenium, iridium and rhodium. Used to coat computer hard disks, in spark plugs and car autocatalysts, they’ve surged at least 29 percent, outperforming every material in the Bloomberg Commodity Index. The gains have been driven by industrial demand as well as some speculative buying, Heraeus Metals Germany GmbH & Co. said in a report earlier this month.