Hedge funds sold petroleum for the fourth week running, though the rate slowed from the two-year peak set a week earlier, as they lowered their expectations on oil consumption, prompting Saudi Arabia to issue an unusually blunt warning to short sellers.
Hedge funds and other money managers sold the equivalent of 18 million barrels in the six most important petroleum futures and options contracts in the week to Sept. 15, down from sales of 171 million the week before.
The combined position across all six contracts has fallen to 426 million barrels (which puts it in the 24th percentile for all weeks since 2013) from 664 million barrels on Aug. 18 (the 63rd percentile).
Petroleum positions have turned firmly bearish, from moderately bullish in the middle of last month, records published by ICE Futures Europe and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission show.
Portfolio managers have become sceptical about market rebalancing as OPEC+ shows signs of weariness with production cuts and oil consumption recovers more slowly from the pandemic than anticipated.
No comments:
Post a Comment