This summary highlights futures positions and changes made by speculators such as hedge funds and CTA’s across 24 commodities up until last Tuesday, October 13. A week where a furious rally in big tech helped lift U.S. stocks to the highest in almost six weeks. Also in focus was the ebb and flow of news regarding a fresh round of U.S. stimulus. The S&P 500 rose 4.5%, bond yields held steady, the dollar traded softer while broad buying lifted the Bloomberg Commodity index by 1.6%.
All sectors with the exception of precious metals rose with the top five being natural gas, HG Copper, cotton, coffee and hogs. The worst performers were gasoline, palladium, and cocoa. Overall hedged funds increased their net long position by 5% to a fresh 30 month high at 2.1 million lots. The buying was concentrated in Brent crude oil, natural gas, copper, corn and sugar while WTI crude oil, gold, soybeans and cocoa saw the bulk of the selling. From a net short in mid-July, the agriculture sector long now accounts for 50% of the total commodity fund long.