Head of Commodity Strategy
Summary: Our weekly Commitment of Traders update highlights future positions and changes made by hedge funds and other speculators across commodities and forex during the week to Tuesday, June 13. A week that saw US bond yields rise ahead of the FOMC meeting, while in in forex, another week of fresh dollar weakness did not prevent a continued reduction in bearish dollar bets to a three-month. In commodities, broad gains supported a 20% jump in bullish bets, primarily driven by short covering across grains and industrial metals
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 reasons why we focus primarily on the behavior of the highlighted groups are:
This summary highlights futures positions and changes made by hedge funds across commodities and forex during the week to last Tuesday, June 13. A week that saw continued strong gains across global stock markets and US bond yields rising ahead of last week’s FOMC meeting. In forex, another week of fresh dollar weakness did not prevent a continued reduction in bearish dollar bets to a three-month low while broad commodity gains supported a 20% jump in bullish commodity bets, primarily driven by rising demand for grains and industrial metal market.
Money managers which include leveraged traders such as hedge funds and trend-following CTA’s remain key actors across the commodity market, and on a weekly basis the US CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) through its Commitment of Traders Report give insight to the positioning among this group of traders. Instead of causing them, 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.
In the week to June 13, the Bloomberg Commodity Index climbed 0.7% as May weakness continued to be replaced by June strength driven by a softer dollar, speculation that the Chinese government may step up its support for the economy, hot and dry weather raising concerns across the agriculture sector and Saudi Arabia’s latest attempt to prop up the oil market. Gains were primarily focusing on the grains (+2.4%) and industrial metal sector (2.1%) while precious metals (-0.8%) and energy (-0.9%) traded softer.
Speculators, responding to these latest developments by lifting their combined net long across 24 major commodity futures by 153k contracts, or 20% to 928k contracts. Primarily driven by short covering in the grains market and copper and fresh longs being added to the softs sector. Energy was mixed with crude oil selling being offset by demand for gasoil and natural gas while precious metals, led by gold, saw net selling ahead of the FOMC meeting.
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)