Gold has traditionally represented a profitable safe haven for investors in times of financial and political turmoil.

The debt crises in Greece and Puerto Rico and the stock plunge in China during recent months would certainly qualify for turmoil. But gold hasn't benefited. The precious metal dropped to a five-year low last week. And even after a 0.8 percent gain Monday, it stood at only $1,102.80 an ounce.

A report from Barclays Bank obtained by Business Insider shows that investors withdrew $480 million from gold-linked derivatives in June, putting the outflow for the last two months at more than $1 billion.

"There are limited signs of safe-haven demand for gold," Barclays analysts wrote. "Since September 2014, gold has underperformed other haven assets such as bunds [German bonds] and U.S. Treasurys."

Over the last year, gold has dropped 16 percent, while the 10-year Treasury yield has slid to 2.24 percent from 2.42 percent.

Gold's decline has been accompanied by that of many other commodities. Major commodities indices hit 13-year lows last week. So now must be time to exit the asset class with both feet running, right?

Quite the contrary, says Barron's columnist Andrew Bary. "It’s time to consider commodities," he writes.

"While the Standard & Poor’s 500, Nasdaq Composite, and other key equity indexes are near record levels, commodity stocks, including energy shares, are way below their peaks. Commodities are probably the most out-of-favor industry group in the stock market."

That's cat nip for value investors.

Indeed, "the commodities space represents great value versus the rest of the market,” Roland Morris, a commodity strategist and portfolio manager at Van Eck Global, tells Barron's.

"There has been no place to hide--gold, industrial metals, and energy have all been weak." Oil has slid to a four-month low, with U.S. crude trading at $44.90 a barrel Monday.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 index stood at 2,105 Monday afternoon, less than 2 percent beneath its record high.

Some investors clearly agree with Bary. The Bloomberg Commodity Index jumped 2.4 percent Monday, the most in six months.

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