According to the CFTC Commitments of Traders report for the week ended March 31, NET LENGTH for crude oil futures dropped -905 contracts to 435 108 for the week. Speculative long positions rose +46 031 contracts while shorts jumped +46 936 contracts. Bets for higher crude oil prices could increase in the coming week. Donald Trump tweeted last week that Saudi Arabia and Russia could agree to reduce output by -10M bpd. OPEC calls for an emergency meeting on Wednesday, hoping to find ways to rescue price amidst demand collapse. We do not expect a coordinated output cut deal would be reached soon. As such any rally in oil price could be temporary. For refined oil products, NET LENGTH for gasoline dropped -1 641 contracts to 88 099, while heating oil‘s NET SHORT decreased -5 862 contracts to 9 987. NET SHORT for natural gas futures fell -11 088 contracts to 98 362 contracts for the week.
Gold futures’s NET LENGTH declined -29 517 contracts to 258 849. Speculative long positions plunged -30 399 contracts while shorts dropped -882. Silver futures’ NET LENGTH dropped -2 809 contracts to 30 878. For PGMs, NET LENGTH of Nymex platinum futures declined -2 448 contracts to 19 848 while that for palladium added +621 contracts to 912.
