A quartet of the largest oil exchange-traded funds has capped the longest run of outflows since mid-2022 as investors pull cash after a recent rally and with the global demand outlook clouded.
(Bloomberg) — A quartet of the largest oil exchange-traded funds has capped the longest run of outflows since mid-2022 as investors pull cash after a recent rally and with the global demand outlook clouded.
Combined, the funds — WisdomTree Brent Crude Oil, United States Oil Fund, WisdomTree WTI Crude Oil, and ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Crude Oil — have posted net outflows for four weeks, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the longest run since July, with a drawdown of $211 million last week.
Crude futures — both for global benchmark Brent and US counterpart West Texas Intermediate — just wrapped up four weeks of gains after OPEC+ announced a surprise supply cut and key timespreads became more bullish. At the same time, however, some products, notably diesel, have flashed warning signals as investors fret about a global slowdown, including a possible US recession.
“We see recent outflows are primarily driven by profit-booking as most of the fresh inflows emerged when prices fell below $75 a barrel last month,” said Soni Kumari, a commodity strategist with ANZ Group Holdings Ltd., in Bengaluru, India. “We see these fund outflows fizzling out rather than gathering pace.”
Still, Yeap Jun Rong, a market analyst at brokerage IG Asia Pte, highlighted macro-economic concerns. “Longer-term investors may still be expecting an eventual decline in oil prices with the build-up in recession risks over the past month, which prompts some paring of exposure,” Yeap said.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.