According to the CFTC Commitments of Traders report for the week ended September 25, traders turned more bullish on the energy market. NET LENGTH for crude oil, heating oil and gasoline futures rose, while NET SHORT for natural gas futures dropped. Speculative long positions of crude oil futures jumped +20 300 contracts, while shorts declined -9 419 contracts, resulting in an increase in NET LENGTH, by +29 719 contracts, to 560 085 contracts. For refined oil products, Net LENGTH for heating oil futures added +1 423 contracts to 44 363, while that for gasoline soared +8 500 contracts to 112 160. During the week, the front-month WTI crude oil contract jumped +3.48% while the corresponding Brent contract was up +3.59%. RBOB gasoline rose +3.11%. Net SHORT for natural gas plunged -43 202 contracts, to 38 640 contracts for the week. The Nymex natural gas contract rallied +5.08% on expectations of higher demand due to cold weather.
On the precious metal complex, gold and silver futures stayed in NET SHORTS for another week. Speculative long positions for the former contracted -4 857, while shorts rose +1 947, resulting in a surge in NET SHORT to 17 648 contracts. For the latter, speculative long positions were trimmed by -826 while shorts fell -3 087, resulting in a decline in NET SHORT, by +2 261 contracts, to 23 255 contracts. For PGMs, NET LENGTH of Nymex platinum futures added +4 900 contracts to 2 690 while that for palladium gained +2 682 contracts to 9 690.
