WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculators and traders slightly reduced their net positions in the WTI crude oil futures markets last week for a second consecutive 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 433,562 contracts in the data reported through January 10th. This was a weekly decline of -6,512 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 440,074 net contracts.
Speculative bullish positions had risen for five straight weeks through December 27th on the news that OPEC would curtail its oil output before cooling off these past two weeks.
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 -465,400 contracts last week. This is a weekly increase of 1,364 contracts from the total net of -466,764 contracts reported the previous week.
USO Crude Oil ETF (NYSE:USO):
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 $11.07 which was a fall of $-0.37 from the previous close of $11.44, according to market data.