Oil Speculators Start Year With Huge Increase in Bearish Bets
- Combined shorts in Brent and WTI rose by the most since March
- Index rebalancing risks further pressuring prices this week
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Money managers made one of their biggest bearish shifts on oil prices in years around the start of 2024.
Speculators added about 61,000 combined short positions in Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude in the week to Jan. 2, according to Intercontinental Exchange Inc. and Commodity Futures Trading Commission data. That’s the most since March and the second-largest increase since 2017.