Selloff Scares Away Few Bulls
Hedge Funds Mostly Maintain Bets on Rising Commodities Prices After Plunge
NEW YORK—Hedge funds and other investors still have large bets that commodity prices will continue to rise, even after one of the steepest selloffs in years.
Money managers cut their net-long position in crude-oil futures by 10% on the New York Mercantile Exchange during the week ended Tuesday, according to data released Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The decline left speculative investors holding 233,569 more long contracts that anticipate rising prices than short contracts wagering on a decline. A week earlier, these traders held 258,668 more long contracts.
ReutersTraders work in the crude-oil and natural-gas options pit on the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange in April.
Copper saw some of the steepest declines in money managers’ bets on rising prices, with the category cutting their net-long position in the metal by 59% to 6,076 contracts, from 14,942 a week earlier. Traders shed 6,247 bets on higher prices and added 2,619 bets on lower prices as copper futures tumbled below $4 a pound.
The CFTC, which regulates futures and other derivatives, provides weekly reports on outstanding commodity futures contracts that are closely watched for clues about speculators’ positions.
