Copper Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large metals speculators reduced their bearish bets to a negligible small short position in the Copper 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 Copper futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of -191 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday September 18th. This was a weekly gain of 8,703 contracts from the previous week which had a total of -8,894 net contracts.
The copper short position declined for the first time in three weeks this week. The overall standing has now been in bearish territory for three straight weeks and for four out of the past five weeks. This recent stretch is the first time since October of 2016 that copper speculator bets have fallen into a bearish position.
Copper Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of 1,881 contracts on the week. This was a weekly drop of -6,965 contracts from the total net of 8,846 contracts reported the previous week.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the Copper Futures (Front Month) closed at approximately $273.05 which was an uptick of $10.9 from the previous close of $262.15, according to unofficial market data.