Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Crude Oil Report
CFTC COT data shows speculators oil bets go lower for a 2nd week
CRUDE OIL: Futures market traders and large oil speculators decreased their bullish bets in WTI crude oil futures last week for a second week and pushed overall bullish positions to the lowest level since early December, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.
The non-commercial contracts of crude oil futures, traded by large speculators, traders and hedge funds, totaled a net position of +262,289 contracts in the data reported for March 3rd. This was a change of -7,548 contracts from the previous week’s total of +269,837 net contracts for the data reported through February 24th.
For the week, standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures managed to rise by 7,043 contracts but were offset by the short positions that rose by 14,591 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of -7,548 contracts.
The decline in the overall net speculator positions puts WTI crude oil bets at the lowest level since December 9th when bullish positions equaled +261,776 contracts.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday February 24th to Tuesday March 3rd, the WTI crude oil price saw a slight uptick from $49.21 to $50.52 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices, meanwhile, edged up from $58.56 to $61.02 per barrel from Tuesday February 24th to Tuesday March 3rd, according to price data from investing.com.
COT Report: The weekly commitment of traders report summarizes the total trader positions for open contracts in the futures trading markets. The CFTC categorizes trader positions according to commercial hedgers (traders who use futures contracts for hedging as part of the business), non-commercials (large traders who speculate to realize trading profits) and nonreportable traders (usually small traders/speculators).