Copper Speculators Cut Back Bearish Bets Into New Year
Zachary Storella | Feb 10, 2019 02:31AM ET
Copper Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large precious metals speculators once again reduced their bearish net positions in the Copper Futures markets into the new year, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.
This latest COT data is from early in January due to the government shutdown which halted the releases. The CFTC is releasing data on Tuesdays and Fridays going forward until the data is back up to date.
The non-commercial futures contracts of Copper futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of -19,452 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday, January 8th. This was a weekly reduction of -9,104 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of -10,348 net contracts.
The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) paring bets by -2,197 contracts to a weekly total of 72,344 contracts compared to the gross bearish position (shorts) which saw a gain by 6,907 contracts for the week to a total of 91,796 contracts.
The net speculative position fell for a seventh straight week through January 8th and by a total of -32,054 contracts. The overall copper spec standing fell to the most bearish since late in 2016.
Copper Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders' position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of 19,023 contracts on the week. This was a weekly increase of 9,632 contracts from the total net of 9,391 contracts reported the previous week.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the Copper Futures:(Front Month) closed at approximately $265.60 which was an uptick of $2.50 from the previous close of $263.10, according to unofficial market data.
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