The below summary highlights futures positions and changes made by hedge funds across commodities and forex up until last Tuesday, November 24. The reports, normally published on Friday’s by the U.S. CFTC was delayed due to last week’s Thanksgiving holiday.
During the week, the market behavior was dictated by continued vaccine optimism and the formal start of President-elect Biden’s transition, news that removed the threat of a contested transfer of power. These market-friendly developments helped lift the S&P 500 by 0.7% while the Dow Jones topped 30,000 for the first time. The dollar traded softer, ten-year U.S. bond yields ticked higher by a couple of basis points while the Bloomberg Commodity index rose by 1.1%, led by strong gains in crude oil, copper and agriculture while gold and silver both took a hit.
Commodities
Speculators increased bullish bets across 24 major commodity futures to a near three-year high in the week to November 24. The 3% increase to 2.3 million lots was primarily driven by those commodities, most noticeable crude oil, benefitting from a vaccine driving recovery in growth and demand. Gold, the safe haven metal, saw another slump while copper and platinum saw increased buying interest. The agriculture sector was mixed with another week of profit taking in soybeans and sugar being more than offset by strong buying of corn, coffee and not least cocoa.