Hedge Funds Hiked Bearish Oil Bets Heading Into OPEC+ Meeting.

Hedge funds increased their bearish bets on Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude oil leading up to an OPEC+ meeting that failed to address concerns of oversupply in the market. Short-only positions in the two benchmarks rose by 6,665 lots to 210,135, the highest in 21 weeks. Speculators also reduced their net-long bets on WTI by 6,408 positions to 98,137, the lowest in 21 weeks, while net-long Brent positions increased by 11,630 lots to 166,735. The delayed OPEC+ meeting resulted in deeper cuts, but the voluntary and opaque nature of the curbs left market watchers skeptical about their effectiveness. [Extracted from the article]