In the leadup to the US presidential election, the Jan’25 Brent futures contract strengthened significantly throughout the week ending 05 Nov, rallying from an intraday low of $70.69/bbl on 29 Oct up to an intraday high of $76.05/bbl on 05 Nov. Crude oil prices were strongly supported amid OPEC+ delaying their production hike, initially planned for December, by one month to January, alongside concerns around Hurricane Rafael potentially disrupting 4mb/d of oil production in the US Gulf Coast. In line with this bullish sentiment, Onyx’s weekly CFTC COT predictor anticipates a large increase in speculative long positions in Brent alongside a moderate decrease in shorts for the week ending 05 Nov. Managed-by-money players against Onyx are expected to boost their long positions by almost 8.4mb, while reducing their short positions by 3.0mb.
