Oil short-selling triples since the start of 2020 - Bloomberg

Despite the recent rebound in oil prices to multi-week highs amid fading fears of the coronavirus impact on the global economy, market participants still remain bearish on the black gold, per Bloomberg.

Key takeaways

Bets against West Texas Intermediate crude increased by 11% to the highest in four months during the week ended Feb. 18, data released Friday showed. That puts oil short-selling at more than triple the level at the start of the year.

Money managers’ WTI net-long position, or the difference between bullish and bearish bets, dropped 22% to 95,536 contracts, the lowest since October, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Long-only wagers fell 6.7%.

Oil dumped on Monday

With investors still bearish on oil and rising fears of coronavirus contagion likely to hit oil demand, both crude benchmarks opened with a bearish gap.

At the time of writing, oil prices drop 2.5%, with WIT battling $52 mark while Brent surrenders the 56.50 level.