Front-month U.S. light crude oil futures prices slumped almost 25% yesterday, the second sharp tumble in a week, after the exchange operator ordered a major commodity fund to sell some of its near-dated futures contracts.
FILE PHOTO: Pump jacks operate at sunset in Midland, Texas, U.S., February 11, 2019. REUTERS/Nick Oxford
USO announced its positions would be rolled forward between April 27 and April 29, with approximately one-third rolled each day, in a filing with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission . “We cannot comment on our specific interaction with any market participant or any particular price move,” a spokesperson said in an email to Reuters.
But regulators seem keen to ensure USO’s large and well known positions do not become a cause of dislocations in future . WTI futures specify physical settlement, at a landlocked inland location at Cushing, Oklahoma, while Brent is financially settled based on seaborne crude. Most market participants must now avoid being forced to make or take physical delivery at all costs, which is causing many to shun taking a position in the June or July futures contracts.
The problem is that the WTI futures price has been incorporated as a benchmark into large numbers of secondary products, some aimed at retail investors, or at least not restricted to professionals.
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