Gold Speculators Cut Back On Bullish Bets Last Week

London (Dec 3)  Large precious metals speculators lowered their bullish net positions in the Gold futures markets last week, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Monday (delayed due to Thanksgiving holiday).

The non-commercial futures contracts of Gold futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 271,634 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday, November 26th. This was a weekly change of -14,225 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of 285,859 net contracts.

The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) tumbling by -12,010 contracts (to a weekly total of 325,286 contracts) while the gross bearish position (shorts) rose by 2,215 contracts for the week (to a total of 53,652 contracts).

Gold speculators had increased their bullish positions in four out of the previous five weeks before last week’s decline. The overall bullish position remains strong and above the +250,000 net contract level for a nineteenth straight week.

Gold Commercial Positions:

The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -305,467 contracts on the week. This was a weekly rise of 13,628 contracts from the total net of -319,095 contracts reported the previous week.

Gold Futures:

Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the Gold Futures (Front Month) closed at approximately $1467.40 which was a decrease of $-6.90 from the previous close of $1474.30, according to unofficial market data.

Investing.com