Hedge funds increased wagers on rising commodity prices to the most in two months and the rally in raw materials accelerated as the Federal Reserve pledged to keep borrowing costs low for three more years.

Money managers raised combined bullish positions across 18 U.S. futures and options by 13 percent to 742,902 contracts in the week ended Jan. 24, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. The so-called net-long position in copper jumped 53 percent to the highest since August and in silver by 22 percent to the most since September. Speculators also expanded bullish bets in sugar, soybeans, cotton, gold, gasoline and crude oil.

The flood of bad, awful, terrible and mediocre economic news has prompted many people to ask: Has the U.S. economy fallen into another recession? Until recently, that question had been restricted to the fringes of investing discussion boards, but now even sober economists are beginning to wonder.

Investors, of course, have been selling first and asking questions later.

Renewed fears of a global or U.S. recession have sparked a large selloff in equities, oil and other commodities in recent weeks, with safe-haven assets rallying.