Head of Commodity Strategy
Speculators scaled back their dollar short against eight IMM futures during a reporting week that saw heightened geopolitical tensions following Iran’s missile strike against Israel, US economic data strength, China releasing a mini-bazooka, and European CPI falling below 2% for the first time in three years. Overall, these events triggered heavy selling of EUR and strong buying of AUD, and by the end of last Tuesday, the dollar short had been reduced by USD 1 billion to USD 13.62 billion.
The AUD position flipped to a 14.5k net long from 40k short just two weeks prior, before several stimuli were announced, while, as mentioned, the prospect of the ECB stepping up its rate-cutting pace helped send the EUR lower, resulting in a 23% reduction in the net long. The JPY saw net selling for the first time in thirteen weeks as USDJPY showed signs of rolling over, with US rate cut optimism fading amid strong US economic data, and Japan’s ruling LD party surprisingly picked Ishiba to be its next leader.
In the latest reporting week to 1 October, the Bloomberg Commodity Index continued to build on the strong gains seen the previous week, with the 1.2% gain being led by industrial metals on China demand hopes and continued short covering across the agriculture sector, especially grains, on weather worries and China demand optimism. While the Iranian missile attack happened last Tuesday, the impact on prices and positioning was only seen in the following days.
Overall, the combined net long across the 27 major futures contracts tracked in this jumped 40% to 882k contracts, an 11-month high, with the main contributors being Brent crude, grains, sugar, and live cattle, while selling was limited to a few contracts led by WTI crude, gold, and silver.
Last month, global food prices, according to the UN FAO, jumped 3%, the most since March 2022, with rising prices seen across all five categories, led by a 10.4% increase in sugar, followed by vegetable oils (+4.6%) and dairy (+3.8%), while cereals, which among others include wheat, corn, and rice, rose by +3%. Overall, the global food price index, which has risen 2.15% in the last year, remains 22.4% below the March 2022 record peak that was reached following Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
The BCOM Agriculture Total Return Index, which tracks 11 major futures contracts across grains, softs, and livestock, rose 12% during a six-week period to 1 October. Responding to, and driving this move were hedge funds as they flipped a massive 539k contract net short to a 293k net long, the bulk of the change being driven by strong buying across the grains and oilseeds contracts, resulting in the net position returning to neutral for the first time in 13 months.
The COT reports are issued by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the ICE Exchange Europe for Brent crude oil and gas oil. They are released every Friday after the U.S. close with data from the week ending the previous Tuesday. They break down the open interest in futures markets into different groups of users depending on the asset class.
Commodities: Producer/Merchant/Processor/User, Swap dealers, Managed Money and other
Financials: Dealer/Intermediary; Asset Manager/Institutional; Leveraged Funds and other
Forex: A broad breakdown between commercial and non-commercial (speculators)
The main reasons why we focus primarily on the behavior of speculators, such as hedge funds and trend-following CTA's are:
Do note that this group tends to anticipate, accelerate, and amplify price changes that have been set in motion by fundamentals. Being followers of momentum, this strategy often sees this group of traders buy into strength and sell into weakness, meaning that they are often found holding the biggest long near the peak of a cycle or the biggest short position ahead of a through in the market.
Recent commodity articles:
27 Sept 2024: Commodity weekly: Industrial metals gain strength during a week of crude weakness
26 Sept 2024: Crude prices drop again as Saudi and Libya supply concerns grow
24 Sept 2024: Fed and PBOC add momentum to commodities market rebound
23 Sept 2024: COT: Dollar short reduced; Investment metals see strong demand ahead of FOMC
20 Sept 2024: Commodity weekly: Commodities boosted by bumper rate cut
20 Sept 2024 Video: Gold or silver, which metal will perform the best
17 Sept 2024: With gold reaching new heights, silver shows potential
16 Sept 2024: COT: Record short Brent and gas oil positions add upside risks to energy
11 Sept 2024: Crude slumps amid technical selling and recession fears
10 Sept 2024: US Election: will gold win in all scenarios
9 Sept 2024: COT: Crude long cut to 12-year low; Dollar short more than doubling
5 Sept 2024: Can gold overcome the 'September curse'?
4 Sept 2024: Wheat rises on European crop worries
3 Sept 2024: Chinese economic woes drag down crude oil and copper
2 Sept 2024: COT: Commodities see broad demand as the USD slumps to a net short
30 Aug 2024: Commodities sector eyes fourth weekly gain amid softer dollar and Fed expectations
27 Aug 2024: Month-long sugar slide pauses amid concerns of Brazil's supply
27 Aug 2024: Libya supply disruptions propel crude prices higher
26 Aug 2024: COT: Funds boost metals investment as dollar long positions halve amid weakness
23 Aug 2024: Commodities Weekly: Metal strength counterbalancing energy and grains
22 Aug 2024: Persistent supply contraints keep cocoa prices elevated
21 Aug 2024: Weak demand focus steers crude towards key support
19 Aug 2024: Resilient gold bulls drive price to fresh record above USD 2500
19 Aug 2024: COT Buyers return to crude as gold stays strong; Historic yen buying
16 Aug 2024: Commodities weekly: Gold strong as China weakness drags on other markets
9 Aug 2024: Commodities weekly: Calm returns to markets, including raw materials
Quarterly Outlook
Chief Investment Strategist
Quarterly Outlook
Head of Fixed Income Strategy
Quarterly Outlook
Chief Investment Strategist
Quarterly Outlook
Chief Investment Strategist
Quarterly Outlook
Head of Commodity Strategy
Quarterly Outlook
Chief Investment Strategist
Quarterly Outlook
Chief Investment Strategist
Quarterly Outlook
Chief Investment Strategist
Quarterly Outlook
Head of Fixed Income Strategy
Quarterly Outlook
Head of Commodity Strategy
Disclaimer
The Saxo Bank Group entities each provide execution-only service and access to Analysis permitting a person to view and/or use content available on or via the website. This content is not intended to and does not change or expand on the execution-only service. Such access and use are at all times subject to (i) The Terms of Use; (ii) Full Disclaimer; (iii) The Risk Warning; (iv) the Rules of Engagement and (v) Notices applying to Saxo News & Research and/or its content in addition (where relevant) to the terms governing the use of hyperlinks on the website of a member of the Saxo Bank Group by which access to Saxo News & Research is gained. Such content is therefore provided as no more than information. In particular no advice is intended to be provided or to be relied on as provided nor endorsed by any Saxo Bank Group entity; nor is it to be construed as solicitation or an incentive provided to subscribe for or sell or purchase any financial instrument. All trading or investments you make must be pursuant to your own unprompted and informed self-directed decision. As such no Saxo Bank Group entity will have or be liable for any losses that you may sustain as a result of any investment decision made in reliance on information which is available on Saxo News & Research or as a result of the use of the Saxo News & Research. Orders given and trades effected are deemed intended to be given or effected for the account of the customer with the Saxo Bank Group entity operating in the jurisdiction in which the customer resides and/or with whom the customer opened and maintains his/her trading account. Saxo News & Research does not contain (and should not be construed as containing) financial, investment, tax or trading advice or advice of any sort offered, recommended or endorsed by Saxo Bank Group and should not be construed as a record of our trading prices, or as an offer, incentive or solicitation for the subscription, sale or purchase in any financial instrument. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, would be considered as a marketing communication under relevant laws.
Please read our disclaimers:
- Notification on Non-Independent Investment Research (https://www.home.saxo/legal/niird/notification)
- Full disclaimer (https://www.home.saxo/en-gb/legal/disclaimer/saxo-disclaimer)