Brent and WTI both saw their interest flipping from bullish to bearish in the week to Jan 02, reverting from the previously observed two-week trend.
Brent notably saw bears coming back strongly and increasing their positions by over 30mbbls, representing a 57% rise w-o-w in shorts, prompting price action to slump from $77.15/bbl on Dec 28 to $75.89/bbl on Jan 02. WTI positioning followed a similar fate with bullish interest shrinking by over 3% and bears adding over 35mbbls worth of positions, or an almost 40% growth in short interest.
Speculators’ net positioning fell in both crude futures as it diminished by over 73mbbls (-24.1%) w-o-w. Despite a rising geopolitical risk stemming from the Red Sea attacks, the past week was tainted by a lacklustre demand outlook and growing pessimism over how early the Fed will cut interest rates.
