Yesterday Crude Oil ETFs had a day in the sun after a rough couple weeks and a failed breakout rally. For instance, having traded as high as $27.99 in mid September, DBO (PowerShares DB Oil) has retreated back below $26, including yesterday’s lift of 3.75%.
DBO, USO (U.S. Oil Fund), and OIL (iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil ETN) are the three largest funds in the WTI Crude Oil category, holding about $2.5 billion cumulatively among them in assets under management. However, an ETF that is devoted to investing in Brent Crude Oil futures, BNO (U.S. Brent Oil Fund) has had a better 2012 than the funds that are tied to WTI Crude.
BNO has rallied 8.73% YTD, in stark contrast with the negative returns that WTI Crude Oil funds including USO (-10.92%), DBO (-9.02%), and OIL (-11.61%) have registered this year, and in the trailing one year period, BNO has rallied a notable 19.23%.
We saw some call option activity in USO yesterday amid the bounce in the commodity, and we suspect that it may be tied to commentary and interpretation following the Obama/Romney debate.