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Hedge funds, money managers cut gold, silver longs, raise copper shorts

Money and hedge fund managers cut long positions in US gold futures and options by almost 20% as deflation fears weighed on confidence.

Posted: Saturday , 14 Jul 2012

(Reuters) - 

Hedge funds and money managers cut their net long position in U.S. gold futures and options by nearly 20 percent in the week to July 10, as a price decline on deflation fears prompted speculators to reduce their bullish bets.

The group trimmed its net longs in gold by 19,305 to 88,973 lots in the period, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) Commitments of Traders showed.

"It reflects liquidation in gold after last week's rise. Gold continues to be in a tight trading range with high uncertainty about which direction it will be going next," said Frank McGhee, head precious metals trader at Integrated Brokerage Services LLC.

Gold prices fell about 3.5 percent during the period covered by the report, as signs of economic slowdown in the United States and Europe weighed heavily on bullion's inflation hedge appeal.

Speculators also de creased their net longs in silver by 7 89 to 5 , 7 99 contracts.

In bellwether industrial-metal copper, the group increas ed i ts net short position in copper by 3 , 06 4 to 4 , 8 13 contracts.

McGhee said that he would not be surprised investors would turn bullish next week as the price of copper has covered this week.

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