Large traders increased their long positions in gasoline futures to the highest since 2006, and boosted bullish positions in crude oil and heating oil, as well.
There were 78,541 more bets that gasoline prices would rise than fall for the week ending April 6, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Commitments of Traders report for April 9. The increase is a 7.1 percent rise over the previous week. For the week, the May contract rose 7.36 cents, or 3.2%, to $2.3483 a gallon.
For crude oil, long positions outpaced short positions by 128,138, an increase of about 11,000 from the earlier week. For the week, May futures rose $4.47 to $86.84 a barrel -- the highest since October 2008.
Long positions on heating oil outnumbered shorts by 37,347. Prices rose 14.36 cents to $2.2683 a gallon on April 6, also the highest close since October 2008.
