WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculators cut back on their bullish net positions in the WTI crude oil futures markets last week for a second straight week, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.
The non-commercial contracts of WTI crude futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 508,525 contracts in the data reported through March 7th. This was a weekly decline of -16,729 contracts from the previous week which saw a total of 525,254 net contracts.
Speculative bets have fallen by over -48,000 contracts in the past two weeks after positions surged to a record high level of +556,607 net contracts on February 21st.
WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, categorized by the CFTC as hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -535,499 contracts last week. This is a weekly gain of 10,517 contracts from the total net of -546,016 contracts reported the previous week.
USO (NYSE:USO) Crude Oil ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame as the COT data, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the USO Crude Oil ETF, which tracks the price of WTI crude oil, closed at approximately $11.27 which was a loss of $-0.18 from the previous close of $11.45, according to ETF market data.