BLBG:Brent Below $100 a Fifth Day; Funds Reduce Bullish Bets
Brent crude traded below $100 a barrel for a fifth day as hedge funds cut bullish bets on West Texas Intermediate oil by the most in almost two months.
Brent and WTI futures were both little changed after gaining the past two days. Money managers reduced net-long positions, or wagers that WTI prices will rise, by 6.8 percent in the week ended April 16, according to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. ICE Futures Europe will report on Brent trading commitments at noon London time.
“A flat price for Brent signals it has finally found a bottom last week,” Christopher Bellew, a senior broker at Jefferies Bache Ltd. in London, said by e-mail. “It’s too early to see a return of the longs, as I think we need to see Brent above $100 to spark fund buying again.”
Brent for June settlement on ICE slid 10 cents to $99.55 a barrel at 9:50 a.m. London time. The front-month European benchmark grade was at a premium of $11.20 to June WTI.
WTI for May delivery, which expires today, was at $88.04 a barrel, up 3 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after dropping 3.6 percent last week. The more-active June future was up 8 cents at $88.35. The volume of all Brent contracts traded was 22 below the 100-day average while WTI was 6 percent above.
Qatar, Vitol
Crude will trade at $100 a barrel in the third quarter after a second quarter correction driven by oversupply and a fall in stock markets, the chief executive officer of Qatar International Petroleum Marketing Co., or Tasweeq, Saad Al- Kuwari said today at the Middle East Petroleum and Gas Conference in Abu Dhabi.
Brent last closed above $100 on April 15 and has now fallen for three weeks in a row, the longest run since November.
There won’t be big changes in oil prices in days to come, Vitol Group Chief Executive Officer Ian Taylor said at the same conference today.
Net-long positions in WTI held by money managers, including hedge funds, commodity pools and commodity-trading advisers, declined by 13,298 futures and options combined to 183,032, the least since the week ended March 19, the CFTC report showed.
It was the biggest drop since the period ended Feb. 26.
Hedge funds and other large speculators also reduced bullish wagers on U.S. gasoline by 10,350 futures and options combined, or 16 percent, to 53,506. It was the lowest level since July.
The average price for regular gasoline at U.S. pumps fell 11.04 cents a gallon in the past two weeks to $3.5363, according to Lundberg Survey Inc. The survey covers the period ended April 19 and is based on information obtained at about 2,500 filling stations by the Camarillo, California-based company. The average price has dropped 25.87 cents from the peak on Feb. 22, and 37.64 cents from the price on April 20, 2012, Lundberg said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jake Rudnitsky in Moscow at jrudnitsky@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net
