Column: Hedge funds take oil profits as inflation fears intensify | Reuters
A bout of profit-taking ensued last week as seven-year highs in crude oil and middle distillates prices intensified concerns about inflation and the possibility of countermeasures from central banks.
Rapidly escalating prices for oil and other commodities have become a central problem for macroeconomic policymakers in advanced economies. Unless inflation in oil and other commodities starts to decelerate on its own, the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks will be forced to raise interest rates to slow growth and bring prices back under control.
Against that backdrop, hedge funds and other money managers sold the equivalent of 28 million barrels in the six most important petroleum-related futures and options contracts in the week to Feb. 8.
It was the second time in three weeks that portfolio managers sold petroleum, and the sales were the largest since the end of last November.
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