According to the CFTC Commitments of Traders report for the week ended July 3, net LENGTH for crude oil futures soared +31 629 contracts to 656 720. Net LENGTH for heating oil futures rose +2 297 contracts to 49 443 while that for gasoline added +1 145 contracts to 96 616. Net SHORT for natural gas jumped +22 846 contracts to 89 795 for the week. During the week, the front-month WTI crude oil contract jumped +5.12% while the Brent contract added +1.9%. For refined oil products, the Nymex heating oil and RBOB gasoline contracts gained +1.65% and +2.07% respectively. The Nymex natural gas contract fell -2.35% for the week.
Traders were mixed over the precious metal complex. Net LENGTH for the gold futures gained +1 655 contracts to 78 327 while that for silver plunged -9 539 contracts to 24 682 for the week. For PGMs, NET SHORT of platinum dropped -787 contracts to 6 902 while that for palladium added +280 contracts to 8 871. The benchmark Comex gold and silver contract dropped -0.4% and -1.76% respectively. For PGMs, while the Nymex platinum contract declined -3.16%, the corresponding palladium contract was down -0.37%.
