Weekly Large Trader COT Report: WTI Crude Oil
CFTC COT data shows speculator’s bets dropped last week
WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Futures market traders and large oil speculators sharply decreased their overall bullish bets in WTI oil futures last week following three weeks of small rises, 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 +296,160 contracts in the data reported for July 7th. This was a change of -32,019 contracts from the previous week’s total of +328,179 net contracts for the data reported through June 30th.
For the week, the standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures advanced by 2,841 contracts, but was overtaken by the short positions that dropped by 34,860 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of -32,019 contracts.
WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:
In the commercial positions for oil on the week, the commercials (hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes) decreased their existing bearish positions to a net total position of -290,876 contracts through July 7th. This is a weekly change of +40,795 contracts from the total net amount of -331,671 contracts on June 30th.
USO Crude Oil ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday June 30th to Tuesday July 7th, the NYSE:USO United States Oil Fund LP ETF, which tracks the WTI crude oil price, fell from $19.88 to $17.76, according to USO ETF market data.
*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).
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