Los hedge funds y otros eapeculadores aumentaron apuestas a que el oro Abuja en la semana de mayor caida del oro en su historia
Managers Bet on Wrong Side of Gold
Hedge funds and other large speculators increased their net bet on higher gold prices during the week the market recorded its largest-ever two-day selloff, according to government data released on Friday.
Money managers cut the number of bets on lower gold prices by 8.2% during the week ended Tuesday and left their amount of bets on higher prices nearly unchanged, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Such funds' net bet on higher prices rose 9.7% to 61,579 contracts from 56,084 contracts a week earlier.
Gold futures fell 4% on April 12 and fell by an additional 9% on Monday, April 15, notching the biggest two-day selloff since gold trading on CME Group Inc.'s Comex exchange began in 1974.
Front-month April futures last Monday settled at a two-year low of $1,360.60 a troy ounce.
By Tuesday, when the CFTC's snapshot of trader positions was taken, bullish investors had started to return to the market. Prices rebounded 1.9% that day and ended the week at $1,395.30 an ounce.
Reports of robust sales of physical gold by coin dealers and jewelers in Asia as well as by sovereign mints helped the metal's partial recovery.
Retail buyers have been swift in flocking to the market in search of a bargain.
While traders' net bet on gold futures rising grew, the value of those wagers fell once the price decline is taken into account.
The approximate value of money managers' wagers on higher prices fell $3 billion to about $16 billion as of April 16.
Meanwhile, money managers boosted bullish bets and pared back bearish wagers in the copper-futures market, a sign that some investors are anticipating that the metal's recent selloff is nearing an end.
In the week ended April 16, bets on rising prices rose 5.4% to 26,087 contracts, according to the CFTC.
Bets on prices falling declined 7.1% to 53,499 contracts.
The net bearish bet is down almost 30% from April 2, when it hit its highest level in the seven years that the CFTC has been breaking out this data. Still, it was valued on April 16 at $2.3 billion. The decline in bearish bets came as copper's losses slowed on April 16.
Copper prices have been in decline for much of the year, and many investors expect the market will soon bottom out. However, after pausing on Tuesday, a fresh downdraft pushed copper prices into a bear market as of Friday's close.
"People were probably gambling on a bit of a bounce" on Tuesday, said Edward Meir, senior commodity analyst with INTL FCStone Inc. "It didn't really happen for them," he added.
Copper for April delivery, the front-month contract, fell 5.30 cents, or 1.7%, to settle at $3.1515 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The contract is down more than 20% from its February high of $3.9785.
Write to Matt Day at
matt.day@dowjones.com and Tatyana Shumsky at
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