Backwardation
From Reuters Financial Glossary
In commodity markets, backwardation is a situation where the cash or near delivery price rises above the price for forward delivery. The forward price is usually higher than the cash price to reflect the added costs of storage and insurance for stocks deliverable at a later date. Shortage of supply is often to blame for backwardation, because demand for the spot or cash product rises sharply, but the futures price stays steady because more supplies are expected in the future. The opposite of backwardation is contango.
