Hedge Funds Turn Most Bearish on US Gasoline in Five Years

(Bloomberg) -- Hedge funds and money managers boosted bearish bets against US gasoline to the highest in more than five years as worries about oversupply grow.

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Short-only positions in Nymex gasoline rose 4,867 lots to 34,772, the highest since January 2019, according to weekly Commodity Futures Trading Commission data. That brought the investors’ net-long position to the smallest in about eight months.

US refiners have been cranking up activity to meet summer demand, triggering worries about a supply glut even as demand stays strong. Seasonally, US gasoline stockpiles sit well above the levels seen the previous two years. Still, unexpected weather events — including hurricanes — could disrupt refinery operations and quickly change sentiment and positioning, traders said.

The positioning in gasoline is an outlier of sorts as speculators have become increasingly bullish on crude and other fuels such as gasoil in Europe.

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