According to the CFTC Commitments of Traders report for the week ended July 31, traders were generally bullish towards the energy complex. Net LENGTH for crude oil futures rose +2 929 contracts to 613 400. Net LENGTH for heating oil futures added +305 contracts to 42 017 while that for gasoline gained +11 316 contracts to 110 958. Net SHORT for natural gas decreased -1 684 contracts to 126 427 for the week. Both crude oil benchmarks rose during the week. The front-month for WTI crude oil contract added +0.35% while the Brent contract gained +1.1%. However, if we look at the bigger picture, the WTI contract has fallen for 5 consecutive weeks and has been hovering below US$70/bbl recently. The Brent contract is more directionless with price fluctuating about US$75/bbl over the past weeks.
Traders were mixed over the precious metal complex. NET LENGTH for gold gold futures declined -13 260 contracts to 35 337 last week. Meanwhile, NET LENGTH for silver futures gained +2 326 contracts to 5 864. For PGMs, NET SHORT of platinum added +67 contracts to 8 183 while NET LENGTH for palladium was up +1 149 contracts to 4 596 during the week. The benchmark Comex gold contract slipped -0.02% while the corresponding silver contract gained +0.24% during the week. Risk for gold continues to be tilted towards the downside as US Treasury yields continue to climb higher.
