Bets on oil and precious metals futures fell across the board. According to the CFTC Commitments of Traders report for the week ended March 17, NET LENGTH for crude oil futures jumped +52 840 contracts to 440 237 for the week. Speculative long positions fell -14 748 contracts while shorts slumped -67 588 contracts. For refined oil products, NET LENGTH for gasoline declined -4 042 contracts to 83 223, while heating oil‘s NET SHORT decreased +10 234 contracts to 13 324. NET SHORT for natural gas futures slumped -89 307 contracts to 123 681 contracts for the week.
Gold futures’s NET LENGTH fell -17 615 contracts to 281 916. Speculative long positions plunged -18 885 contracts while shorts dropped -1 270. Silver futures’ NET LENGTH declined -2 979 contracts to 41 968. For PGMs, NET LENGTH of Nymex platinum futures declined -5 600 contracts to 17 647 while that for palladium dipped -1 534 contracts to 1 255.
