A new wave of concerns related to the Euro zone sovereign debt problems triggers a sharp appreciation of U.S. dollar and hence weighs on the price of oil. Brent is currently trading below 110 USD per barrel (USD/bbl), whereas U.S. benchmark WTI is trading at 97.5 USD/bbl level.
The CFTC Commitment of Traders (CoT) report released on Friday unveiled another decrease in Money Managers’ (MM) net position (see the chart). According to the report, speculators cut the net long position (futures report only) by more than 9 percent last week, i.e. about the same drop as in the week before. Nevertheless, this time both MM’s short and long positions decreased this time whereas the drop last week had also been supported by rising short positions.
Moreover, the American Petroleum Institute’s report said on Friday that U.S. consumption of gasoline decreased by 2.2 percent compared to the previous year.
Metals
The CoT released on Friday showed that Money Managers cut net long position in copper. The report also unveiled a change in speculators’ sentiment. MM cut long position by almost 50 percent over past five weeks. Meanwhile, short positions have risen by more than 10 percent since the beginning of April.
Although lingering sovereign debt issues weigh on the price of most commodities (mainly through stronger U.S. dollar), gold continues to shine. Despite the sharp appreciation of the greenback, gold leapt above 1500 USD per troy ounce (USD/toz) level and currently is trading for 1510 USD/toz.
Chart of The day:
The CFTC Commitment of Traders report released on Friday unveiled another decrease in Money Managers’ net position. The chart shows that the most recent reading is slowly converging towards longer term observations.