WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculator bullish net positions in the WTI crude oil futures markets came in virtually unchanged this week following a large gain on May 23rd, 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 373,755 contracts in the data reported through May 30th. This was a weekly edge higher by 766 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 372,989 net contracts.
This week’s small gain follows a +44,037 contract jump the previous week and now positions are at their highest level since April 25th when positions totaled +411,822 contracts.
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 -377,765 contracts this week. This was a weekly decrease of -9,214 contracts from the total net of -368,551 contracts reported the previous week.
USO (NYSE:USO) ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the USO Crude Oil ETF, which tracks the price of WTI crude oil, closed at approximately $10.24 which was a slide of $-0.40 from the previous close of $10.64, according to ETF market data.