During the past two weeks,general commodities sector was increased, led by the essential metals for industry and the grains sector.
We will be very interested in futures positions and changes made by hedge funds across commodities and forex during the beginning of this month.
A period that ended with a surprise US CPI triggered renewed weakness in the stock market and strong bond yields. The dollar was sold and bought safely and happily, led by the gains of the euro and the Swiss franc, while the commodity sector, especially the metals and industrial grains sectors, witnessed a massive recovery.
In terms of commodities, the Bloomberg Commodity Index is up more than 2% in the reporting week through the middle of this month with gains in all sectors except soft commodities. Silver, platinum and copper give strength to the industrial field due to its deep association with it. The energy sector was mixed while the US government report supported massive gains across the grain sector especially soybeans.
As a result of these often positive price bids, speculators increased their bullish bets on 15 out of 24 commodity futures contracts by 70,000 lots to over 1 million. The biggest change was driven by a short cap against fresh buying, which poses a slight concern about the global economic outlook and its impact on commodity demand.
With regard to energy, oil has seen an increase in net purchases. Thanks to the small gains, the net buying of WTI and Brent crude rose by 13.4 thousand lots to 341.5 thousand lots, and the three fuel products contracts saw a light net selling while the net selling of natural gas reached 60 thousand lots, a threefold increase.
The metals sector witnessed an extraordinary shift from gold to industrial metals. The gold position knew a short net minimum of only 11.3 thousand lots. With the price not exceeding $1,680 as a result of additional selling likely due to the technical breach.
A positive 9% rise in silver from a two-year low has positively impacted a 70% drop in net selling to 17K, while platinum net sale was halved to 9K lots while speculators turned negative on copper in three months. . After cutting short positions by 61% to 4.4 thousand lots.
Sugar mixed with soft materials saw an increase of 30.5 thousand, while net short cocoa rose to the highest level in the last two years at 36.4 thousand lots.