The below summary highlights futures positions and changes made by hedge funds across 24 major commodity futures up until last Tuesday, April 28. The risk on seen during this period was driven by hopes, perhaps in some cases premature, that the COVID-19 pandemic had started to loosen its stranglehold on the global economy. The S&P 500 jumped by 5% while the dollar and bonds traded softer.
Hedge funds were net buyers of energy and metals while they continued to sell agriculture commodities during the week to April 28. The prospect of production cuts and lock-downs starting to ease spurred speculative demand for crude oil and natural gas while copper short-covering continued. Gold and silver only attracted a small amount of buying despite rallying by 2% during the week. Baring a few exceptions such as soybeans, cotton and cattle, broad based selling across the agriculture sector continued.