According to the CFTC Commitments of Traders report for the week ended October 30, NET LENGTH for crude oil, heating oil and gasoline futures all continued to drop. Oil prices dived during the reporting week, with the front-month WTI crude oil contract dipping -0.38% while the Brent contract was down -0.69%. Speculative long positions of crude oil futures declined -19 741 contracts, while shorts rose +2 899 contracts, resulting in a fall in NET LENGTH, by -22 640 contracts, to 432 638 contracts. For refined oil products, Net LENGTH for heating oil futures plunged -3 640 contracts to 34 207, while that for gasoline was down -4 131 contracts to 88 074. During the reporting week, correction of prices of refined oil products was remarkable. the front-month RBOB gasoline contract dropped -1.68% while the heating oil contract was down -0.78%. Net SHORT for natural gas decreased -8 315 contracts, to 4 878 contracts for the week.
On the precious metal complex, NEW LENGTH for gold futures declined while silver futures deepened in NET SHORT. Speculative long positions for the former fell -23 824 contracts, while shorts sank -7 630, resulting in a NET LENGTH of 16 194 contracts. The benchmark Comex contract climbed +0.5% during the week in concern. For the latter, speculative long positions added +1 038 contracts while shorts rose +4 328, raising NET SHORT, by -3 291 contracts, to 8 470 contracts. For PGMs, NET LENGTH of Nymex platinum futures gained +3 061 contracts to 14 723 while that for palladium slipped -1 108 contracts to 12 413.
