Copper Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculators increased their net bullish positions in the copper futures markets last week for the second straight week bringing the net position to a three-week high, 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 copper futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 13,031 contracts in the data reported through May 23rd. This was a weekly rise of 4,385 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 8,646 net contracts.
Speculators had been steadily decreasing their net position over the recent months to a low level of 8,081 net positions on May 5th before the past two weeks brought a turnaround and increase back over the +10,000 level.
Copper Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, categorized by the CFTC as hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -10,729 contracts last week. This is a weekly change of -3,441 contracts from the total net of -7,288 contracts reported the previous week.
iPath Bloomberg Copper Subindex Total Return Exp 22 Oct 2037 (NYSE:JJC) ETN:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the JJC iPath Bloomber Copper ETN, which tracks the price of copper, closed at approximately $29.47 which was a gain of $0.55 from the previous close of $28.92, according to financial market data.