Bets for Higher Precious Metal Prices Increased Despite Fed’s Rate Hike

New York (June 17)  According to the CFTC Commitments of Traders report for the week ended Jun 12, net LENGTH for crude oil futures soared +11 717 contracts to 595 293. Net LENGTH for heating oil futures dropped -4 208 contracts to 34 597 while that for gasoline declined -7 965 contracts to 85 868. Net SHORT for natural gas increased -1 688 contracts to 61 125 for the week. During the reporting week, both crude oil benchmarks gained, with the front-month WTI and Brent contracts adding +12.85 and +0.66% respectively. On refined oil products, the Nymex heating oil contract gained +0.94% while the RBOB gasoline contract slipped -0.77%. The Nymex natural gas contract was +1.7% for the week. the focus of the week is the OPEC meeting, at which OPEC and some non-OPEC producers would discuss about lifting the output quota.

Traders were bullish about the precious metal complex during the week. Net LENGTH for the gold futures rose +8 824 contracts to 120 240 while that for silver rallied +30 296 contracts to 49 730 for the week. The Comex gold contract slipped -0.18% while the corresponding silver contract rallied -2.17% during the week. For PGMs, Net LENGTH for platinum gained +1 415 contracts to 3 561 while that for palladium rose +1 787 contracts to 13 362. The Nymex contract for platinum added +0.02% and that for palladium jumped +2.89% for the week.

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