Following a week in which the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD) and rival physically backed gold exchange traded funds gained nearly 3.5%, gold futures flirted with $1,330 per troy ounce during Monday’s Asian session on news professional traders and hedge funds are becoming increasingly bullish on the yellow metal.
U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show net long positions in gold jumped 17% to 69,291 futures and options in the week ended Feb. 11, Bloomberg reported. “Net bullish bets across 18 U.S.-traded commodities rose 18% to 1.07 million contracts, the highest since October 2012, led by silver and coffee,” according to Bloomberg.
Last Friday, the iShares Silver Trust (NYSEArca: SLV) surged 4.2%, closing above its 200-day moving average for the first time since last year. [Silver ETF Breaks Out]
Increased bullish bets on coffee futures come as the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Coffee Total Return Sub-Index ETN (NYSEArca: JO) is up more than 29% year-to-date, making it not only one of the best commodities ETFs or ETNs, but one of 2014’s best exchange traded products of any variety. [Getting Involved With the Coffee ETN]
GLD held 25.9 million ounces of gold as of Feb. 13, compared to a low 25.4 million ounces in mid-January, and the ETF’s gold holdings are now hovering at their highest level since Dec. 20, according to SPDR Gold Shares data.