This summary highlights futures positions and changes made by hedge funds across commodities and forex during an extended reporting week to last Tuesday, July 11. A week that saw stocks trade lower while continued dollar weakness was seen in the run up to last Wednesday’s lower than expected US inflation print. The 1% drop in the broad Bloomberg Dollar index supported a strong week in commodities, primarily driven by the energy sector while the bond market was mixed buying of 2’s and selling of 10’s driving an 18-basis point steepening of the curve.
Commodity sector:
In the extended reporting week from July 3 to 11, the Bloomberg Commodity Index traded up 1.8% with broad gains being led by a surging energy sector on tight supply focus, and together with small gains in precious metals, grains, and livestock they more than offset small losses in industrial metals and softs. On an individual basis 19 out of the 24 major commodity futures tracked in this report traded higher, with the highflyers being crude oil and fuel products rising by around 7%, and followed by PGM’s (Platinum Group Metals), corn, wheat and hogs.
Responding to these developments the overall net long held by hedge funds rose 104k contracts to 1.097 million contracts, a three-week high, with strong net buying of energy (135k contracts) and livestock (15k) being offset by net selling in metals (4k) and grains (40k)