(Bloomberg) -- Hedge funds pared bets on falling US crude prices as trade wars ratchet up worries about tighter supplies in America, but maintained a bearish stance on Brent amid the prospect of higher OPEC+ output.
Money managers reduced their net-long position on Brent by 6,140 lots to 153,285 lots in the week ended March 11, the lowest since November, weekly ICE Futures Europe data on futures and options show. The cartel surprised markets with a plan to revive halted output after repeated delays.
The market for Brent has shown signs of loosening in recent weeks as OPEC+ member nations skirted output quotas and traders braced for the group to bring back 2.2 million barrels of daily output by 2026. The global benchmark’s prompt spread — the price difference between its two nearest contracts — has narrowed to 52 cents from $1.09 in late January, a sign of more readily available supplies in the near term.
Meanwhile, funds’ bullish position on West Texas Intermediate increased by 11,879 net-long positions to 115,762, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission data. US President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs against major trading partners fanned concerns of a tighter near-term market, with US crude backfilling any Canadian or Mexican barrels that are diverted elsewhere to avoid levies.
Still, long-only positions on WTI sunk to the lowest in almost five months as the fallout from Trump’s political maneuvering threatens to torpedo global economic growth and damp energy demand.