According to the CFTC Commitments of Traders report for the week ended April 14, NET LENGTH for crude oil futures gained +25 774 contracts to 510 669 for the week. Speculative long positions jumped +44 703 contracts while shorts added +18 929 contracts. Traders bet high crude oil prices after weeks of selloff. However, the outlook remains week. At the time of writing this report, the front-month WTI crude oil futures fell to as low as US$14.5/bbl before recovering to US$18/bbl. The supply/demand imbalance is expected to pressure prices. For refined oil products, NET LENGTH for gasoline added +990 contracts to 92 170, while heating oil‘s NET SHORT increased +4 370 contracts to 4 269. NET SHORT for natural gas futures declined -21 650 contracts to 86 740 contracts for the week.
Gold futures’s NET LENGTH added +3 559 contracts to 252 501. Speculative long positions rose +6 737 contracts while shorts added +3 178. Silver futures’ NET LENGTH added +837 contracts to 30 554. For PGMs, NET LENGTH of Nymex platinum futures slipped -1 225 contracts to 17 796 while that for palladium added +95 contracts to 816.
