10-Year Note Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large bond speculators strongly reduced their bearish net positions in the 10-Year Note futures markets this week, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.
The non-commercial futures contracts of 10-Year Note futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of -271,369 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday March 13th. This was a weekly boost of 90,781 contracts from the previous week which had a total of -362,150 net contracts.
Speculative bearish positions had risen for two straight weeks to the most bearish level since February 28th 2017 (-409,659 contracts) before this week’s turnaround by approximately 90,000 contracts. The bearish net level is under the -300,000 contract level for the first time in three weeks.
10-Year Note Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of 511,659 contracts on the week. This was a weekly shortfall of -101,182 contracts from the total net of 612,841 contracts reported the previous week.
iShares Core MSCI EAFE (NYSE:IEFA) ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEF) closed at approximately $102.33 which was an advance of $0.40 from the previous close of $101.93, according to unofficial market data.