According to the CFTC Commitments of Traders report for the week ended March 19, NET LENGTH for crude oil futures jumped +52 481 contracts to 414 746 for the week. Speculative long positions rose +34 394 contracts while shorts plunged-18 087. Crude oil prices strengthened during the week on expectations that sanctions against Iran and Venezuela would reduce global oil supply. Meanwhile, the market was thrilled by OPEC+’s improved compliance to output cut in February. However, our report suggests that the headline compliance level have masked the underlying the lack of solidarity among the producers agreed in the output cut deal. For refined oil products, NET LENGTH for gasoline dropped -863 contracts to 83 428, while NET SHORT for heating oil slipped +206 contracts to 12 963 contracts for the week. NET SHORT for natural gas futures gained -4 654 contracts to 30 235 contracts for the week.
On the precious metal complex, NET LENGTH for gold futures increased, by +9 577 contraction, to 88 396 last week. Speculative long positions rose slipped -925 contracts, while shorts declined -10 502, resulting in a rise in NET LENGTH. For silver futures, speculative long positions dipped -987 contracts while shorts gained +2 785. These resulted in a fall in NET LENGTH, by -3 772 contracts, to 23 310 contracts. For PGMs, NET LENGTH of Nymex platinum futures increased -1 233 contracts to 17 581 while that for palladium slid -485 contracts to 12 584.
