This summary highlights futures positions and changes made by hedge funds across commodities and forex up until last Tuesday, June 7. A week that saw stocks make a tentative but, as it turned out, futile attempt to recover after better than expected economic data raised the prospect of the US Federal Reserve managing a soft landing. Hopes that was shot down in flames on Friday when US inflation jumped to a fresh 40 year high and consumer confidence, hurt by the rising cost of everything, took a dive.
Returning to the reporting, bond yields and the dollar headed higher while the commodity sector led by energy hit another record high.
The latest across-market updates, including crude oil, gold and industrial metals, can be found in our daily Financial Market Quick Take here
Commodities
The Bloomberg Commodity Spot index which tracks a basket of major futures contracts in energy, metals and agriculture jumped 4% during the reporting week, with gains being led by crude oil, natural gas, platinum, soybean oil and livestock.
Speculators responded to these developments by increasing their net long exposure to 24 major futures contracts by 4% to 1.7 million lots, still some 23% below the recent peak in bullishness from February 22, before the Ukraine invasion forced volatility targeting funds to cut their exposure as volatility spiked.
The increased exposure was concentrated among a handful of commodities led by crude oil, most metals, cocoa, coffee and cattle.