WTI Crude Oil Speculators Edged Bullish Bets Lower For 1st Time In 3 Weeks
Zachary Storella | May 31, 2020 02:49AM ET
Large energy speculators decreased their bullish net positions in the WTI Crude Oil futures markets this week, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.
The non-commercial futures contracts of WTI Crude Oil futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 542,574 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday, May 26th. This was a weekly decline of -1,029 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of 543,603 net contracts.
The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) advancing by 9,217 contracts (to a weekly total of 701,234 contracts) while the gross bearish position (shorts) rose by 10,246 contracts for the week (to a total of 158,660 contracts) to create the -1,029 net position.
Crude oil speculative positions fell slightly this week after two weeks of gaining bullish bets. Speculator positions, despite this week’s decline, have been strongly bullish in the past few months as long positions have risen in six out of the past eight weeks and added a total of +107,466 contracts to the bullish standing. The bullish position has now had a weekly total of more than +500,000 net contracts for seven straight weeks which is the first time this has happened since the August-October 2018 time-frame.
h3 WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:/h3The commercial traders' position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -571,140 contracts on the week. This was a weekly rise of 3,815 contracts from the total net of -574,955 contracts reported the previous week.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the WTI Crude Oil Futures (Front Month) closed at approximately $34.35 which was a gain of $2.39 from the previous close of $31.96, according to unofficial market data.
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