“Speculators increased their bullish commodity wagers for the first time since November as signs of accelerating growth in China and the U.S. drove prices higher for a fourth consecutive week.
Hedge funds and other money managers raised their net-long positions across 18 U.S. futures and options by 2.4 percent to 691,832 contracts in the week ended Dec. 31, the first gain since Nov. 27, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. Cotton holdings climbed to the highest since September 2011, and those for sugar reached a nine-week high. Gold wagers rose for the first time in three weeks.
The Standard & Poor’s GSCI gauge of 24 raw materials rebounded 3.8 percent since reaching a three-month low on Nov. 5. China’s manufacturing unexpectedly expanded at the fastest pace in 19 months in December, a private survey showed Dec. 31. The U.S. added more jobs than forecast last month, capping a third year of rising payrolls, the government said Jan. 4.
“In 2012, we had a lot of liquidating by hedge funds, but there’s an incentive to reverse that because of growth in emerging markets and especially China,” said Rob Haworth, a senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management inSeattle, which oversees about $111 billion of assets. “It’s going to be a good year for commodities.”
