Copper Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculators increased their net bullish positions in the copper futures markets last week as sentiment for the metal has improved in recent weeks, 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 12,726 contracts in the data reported through June 6th. This was a weekly gain of 3,082 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 9,644 net contracts.
Copper speculators have now pushed their bullish bets higher for three out of the past four weeks. Positions had been on a consistent downtrend in recent months and bullish positions had fallen to the lowest level of the year on May 9th at 8,081 net contracts.
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 -13,326 contracts last week. This was a weekly decline of -3,763 contracts from the total net of -9,563 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 $28.87 which was a edge lower of $-0.21 from the previous close of $29.08, according to financial market data.