Money Managers’ Positions in Crude
For the week to May 07, we saw strongly opposing positions adopted by prod/merc players across the two benchmarks, whilst money managers took similar approaches.
Brent futures witnessed a risk-off attitude from prod/merc players, whilst WTI futures saw these players display a risk-on attitude, albeit to a lesser extent. Resultantly, open interest across the two crude grades declined by 23.1mbbls (-0.6%) and combined net positioning decreased by a huge 115.2mbbls (-24.5%) amongst speculators, indicating their bearishness.
Prices for the Brent and WTI Jul contracts began the week strongly in $85/bbl and $80/bbl handles, respectively, before both seeing major weakness on May 01, where they then flatlined for the rest of the week to May 07.
Overall, combined long positions in the crude futures reversed last week’s increase and declined by 88.4mbbls (-14% w-o-w). Combined short positions increased but by a smaller amount, rising by 26.7mbbls (+16.5%).
