Brent flipped to adopting a bearish positioning in the week to Jan 23, with longs exiting alongside a weekly rise in shorts. On the other hand, WTI also witnessed a reversal in net positioning, with money managers now bullish on the American crude benchmark.
Combined positioning saw a w-o-w increase in long positions of 6mbbls (+1.24%) and liquidation of shorts by 27mbbls (-14%). As a consequence of this bullishness, total combined net positioning recorded an 11.5% weekly rise to 328mbbls.
The bearishness in Brent likely stemmed out of in-the-money longs taking profit and shorts entering over concerns of how long the geopolitical risk premium will overshadow narratives of weak demand and oversupply. Notwithstanding this, WTI’s bullishness perhaps emerged from an EIA-announced crude oil draw outweighing market expectations.
