After plunging nearly 14% from Sept. 29 through Oct. 15, the United States Oil Fund (NYSEArca: USO) has steadied in recent days and signs point to some investors being daring enough to call a bottom in beaten up crude prices.
“The four biggest oil exchange-traded products listed in the U.S. have received a combined $334 million so far this month, the most since October 2012,” reports Moming Zhou for Bloomberg.
Despite persistent weakness in oil prices, the PowerShares DB Oil Fund (NYSEArca: DBO) has added $14.6 million in new assets over the past week, a sum surpassed by just six other PowerShares ETFs, according to issuer data. Illinois-based PowerShares is the fourth-largest U.S. ETF issuer.
The $234.1 million DBO tracks the DBIQ Optimum Yield Crude Oil Index, which is designed to reflect price action in light sweet crude futures. [How Contango Impacts Commodities ETFs]
While USO has lost $25.1 million over the past week and the United States Brent Oil Fund (NYSEArca: BNO) has neither added or lost assets, there are signs some investors are again getting comfortable with taking leveraged bets on crude prices.
For example, the ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Crude Oil (NYSEArca: UCO), which attempts to deliver twice the daily performance of the Bloomberg Crude Oil Sub-Index, has added almost $84.5 million over the five days ended Monday while the PowerShares DB Crude Oil Double Short ETN (NYSEArca: DTO) has lost $23.4 million over the same period. [Oil Rises, but Traders Skirt Leveraged ETFs]