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While speculators in Brent were more bearish in the week to Feb 20 with a rise in shorts surpassing an increase in longs, WTI enjoyed a more bullish stance amid added length and liquidated short positions.
The Brent futures flat price for the prompt contract has seen a relatively weak morning. Price action initially found stability above the $83/bbl-mark, before coming off from $83.32/bbl at 08:00 GMT to $82.55/bbl at 09:50 GMT.
Prompt Brent futures flat price has seen a mixed afternoon. Prices were initially pressured, falling $1/bbl in less than 4 hours to $82.41/bbl at 14:05 GMT. However, this level incited some buying interest, with prices retracing higher to $83.69/bbl at 16:05 GMT. At time of writing (16:45 GMT) the Apr Brent futures is priced at $83.55/bbl.
The quest for direction in the oil markets has taken players to more niche markets with trading activity in refined fuels surging to the highest observed in multiple years.
Prompt Brent futures flat price has seen a mixed afternoon. Prices were initially supported up to $83.48/bbl at 14:30 GMT before selling interest pressured prices lower to $82.10/bbl at 16:20 GMT.
In Brent, Apr prices have continued to strengthen, hovering around the $82.50/bbl mark. Nonetheless, from a technical perspective, prices remain firmly within neutral territory on both a Bollinger band and RSI basis.
Amid Middle Eastern tensions getting more priced in day on day, the possibility for reversals across the barrel could be on the horizon? See all the updates in this week’s Commitment of Traders report, as well as six one to watches for the week ahead.
Prices have strengthened in the Brent futures, RBOB futures and the ICE LS gasoil futures for the Apr tenor. From a technical perspective, the Apr Brent and RBOB futures are in neutral territory with the RSI around the 60-handles, signalling upward momentum.
Managed by money positions saw a removal in both longs and shorts in the benchmark Brent futures whilst WTI futures recorded a flip to bearish positioning in the week to Feb 06.
ONYX CFTC PREDICTOR – In addition to our regular Monday CFTC COT analysis report, Onyx Insight will publish its own in-house CFTC COT forecast ahead of the official Friday report.
Managed by money positions in Brent futures reverted to the buy-side in the week to Jan 30 as length increased and shorts were reduced. Similar to this, WTI continued to see a bullish positioning.
Brent flipped to adopting a bearish positioning in the week to Jan 23, with longs exiting alongside a weekly rise in shorts. On the other hand, WTI also witnessed a reversal in net positioning, with money managers now bullish on the American crude benchmark.
After a turbulent weekend, with a Trafigura ship on fire and three US Soldiers dead, the futures market is looking bullish for the week ahead
The fundamental backdrop across the gasoil complex remains coloured with freight concerns amid geopolitical risk. How has this impacted European gasoil in a post-Russian embargo world?
Brent futures finally found the momentum it had been waiting for, pointing to some calm in this poor-demand storm. Prompt Brent futures strengthened from $79.10/bbl on Jan 18 to $80.04/bbl on Jan 24, and hitting the $80/bbl mark two times this week.
Every Thursday we release our forecasted CFTC positioning, for the week to Jan 23 our proprietary model at ONYX predicts CFTC positions to be…
Amid a still-raging conflict and prompt oil in high demand, crude technical indicators were seen in overbought territory, but will the contracts hold strength in the near future? See all the updates in this week’s Commitment of Traders report, as well as six one to watches for the week ahead.
Brent saw a continuation of bullish money manager positioning in the week to Jan 16, whilst WTI futures saw a change of heart, flipping to a more bearish stance after being seemingly bullish the week prior. Combined positioning saw an
Brent futures found some relative stability this past week, indicating a lack of clear axe from both the bulls and the bears. Prompt Brent futures climbed to $78.29/bbl on Jan 12 and continued to settle in the following days around
As the Red Sea conflict re-intensified over the weekend, geographical arbitrages went anywhere but sideways. See all the updates in this week’s Commitment of Traders report, as well as six one to watches for the week ahead.
