Copper Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large speculators raised their net positions in the Copper futures markets this week for a second consecutive week and for the fourth out of the past five weeks, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.
The non-commercial futures contracts of Copper futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 24,257 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday July 25th. This was a weekly boost of 8,927 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 15,330 net contracts.
The rise in speculative copper positions is now at the highest level since April 11th when net positions totaled +25,845 contracts.
Copper 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 -23,341 contracts on the week. This was a weekly shortfall of -5,761 contracts from the total net of -17,580 contracts reported the previous week.
JJC ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the iPath Bloomberg Copper ETN (NYSE:JJC), which tracks the price of copper, closed at approximately $32.41 which was an increase of $1.44 from the previous close of $30.97, according to unofficial market data.