A multitrillion-dollar industry is finally undergoing a digital makeover as commodity traders enlist technology to solve longstanding problems in their world. From crude oil to soybeans, cocoa, cotton and chemicals, the physical commodities trade involves the buying and selling of raw materials that are used in daily life as fuel, food or ingredients for finished products. About $10 trillion worth of commodities are produced and consumed yearly, according to an estimate from the government of...

A clerk counts stacks of Chinese yuan at a bank in Beijing, China. Trade in Chinese yuan-denominated crude oil futures has surged since President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal. Launched on March 26, crude oil futures on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) were met with fanfare — and skepticism about how much a state-managed marketplace could displace the well-established crude trade in the New York Mercantile Exchange's West Texas Intermediate (WTI)...

Broad global economic expansion is making assets expensive, so forget investing passively, an investment manager told CNBC on Thursday. Instead, he recommend considering niche growth areas like avocados. "Be very specific about what you do. Look for idiosyncratic, value and unusual niches rather than broad assets and broadly passive allocation," said Stephen Diggle, founder of Singapore-based Vulpes Investment Management. The firm has invested in agriculture since 2009, putting money into...

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) may have been called a bubble and attracted regulatory scrutiny, but a crowdfunding site is hoping to improve things for legitimate start-ups. ICOs have become a popular way for cryptocurrency start-ups to raise money by issuing their own digital tokens in exchange for a virtual currency like ether or bitcoin. Investors don't get a stake in the company, but the tokens they receive can be traded or used on a service provided by the platform. But recently there...