According to the CFTC Commitments of Traders report for the week ended August 14, gold and silver futures surprisingly recorded NET SHORTS, as traders expected prices to weaken further. NET SHORT for for the former was 3 688 contracts, compared with NET LENGTH of 12 688 contracts in the prior week. Silver futures recorded NET SHORT of 2 836 contracts, following NET LENGTH of 4 341 a week ago. For PGMs, NET SHORT of platinum rose +2 039 contracts to 10 182 while NET LENGTH for palladium was down -1 531 contracts to 2 011.
Meanwhile, traders turned more bearish towards the energy complex. They trimmed bets on both sides on crude oil and gasoline futures. For the former, speculative long positions slumped -36 463 contracts while shorts dropped -964 contracts, resulting in a decline of -35 499 contracts in NET LENGTH for the week. Similarly, speculative long positions for gasoline fell -10 396 contracts while shorts dropped -5 177, resulting in a decline of -5 219 contracts in NET LENGTH for the week. Net LENGTH for heating oil futures fell -1 374 contracts to 37 368. The increase in long positions (+842 contracts) more than offset the increase in shorts (+2 216 contracts). Net SHORT for natural gas plunged -30 941 contracts to 76 213 for the week. Traders increased bets for price increase while bets for further price fall were reduced remarkable.
