Investors More Bullish on Oil-Price Recovery

As oil prices continued to rise from multi-year lows touched in January, investors last week became more bullish and increased the number of bets on a recovery in prices.

Net long positions, taken by large investors that the price of Brent crude oil would rise, increased 13% during the past week, according to the Commitment of Traders report from Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE).

Net long positions are calculated by the total number of bets that the price of oil would rise minus the number of bets that it would fall.

Brent, the global benchmark, has registered gains in the past three weeks and is more than 30% higher now compared with its mid-January low.

Some analysts caution, however, that the combination of ample supplies and tepid demand that led to the dramatic slump in oil prices last year shows little sign of abating.

Managed-money accounts decreased the number of long positions--or bets that prices will rise--by 1,492 positions to 265,742 as of Feb. 10, according to the report. The number of short positions--or bets that the crude oil price would fall--fell by 19,883 to 106,768.

The ICE report is published every Monday with data from the previous Tuesday.

Write to Georgi Kantchev at [e-mail]

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