(Bloomberg) — Investment funds increased their bullish bets on Brent crude prices by the most since 2018 last week, as prices roared higher following Iran’s missile attack on Israel.
Net-long positions held by hedge funds, exchange-traded funds and other speculators jumped by the equivalent of 139 million barrels last week, according to a weekly commitments of traders report published by Intercontinental Exchange Inc. The numbers are based on EU rules and differ from closely-watched positioning data that mirror US reporting requirements
Brent futures leaped about $6 last week after Iran launched a missile attack on Israel. The subsequent risk of Israeli retaliation possibly involving energy infrastructure propelled prices even higher, against a backdrop of a market in which speculative traders had amassed record net-bearish wagers.
The most recent positioning figures track reporting under the European Union’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, known as MiFID, for a weekly period to Fridays. The European figures cover a larger volume of positions and can show bigger swings than the report that follows US standards, which is published on Fridays, covering a reporting period that ends on Tuesdays.
For ICE gasoil, Europe’s diesel benchmark, the funds reduced their short positions by the equivalent of 28 million barrels. That was the biggest decline since 2021.
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