The United States Oil ETF has recently seen inflows topping $200 million amid bullish market sentiment that crude oil futures prices will continue to rise, according to Bloomberg estimates published on Friday.
The United States Oil ETF (NYSEARCA: USO) seeks to reflect the performance of the spot price of West Texas Intermediate light, sweet crude oil delivered to Cushing, Oklahoma by investing in a mix of oil futures contracts and other oil interests.
The recent inflows of $200 million are the highest inflows into the exchange-traded fund since August 2020, per Bloomberg's calculations.
The fund saw outflows earlier this year and lost the competition to be the world's biggest oil ETF to the WisdomTree Brent Crude Oil ETF. But now United States Oil ETF is close to regaining the top spot, Bloomberg notes, thanks to the recent jump in WTI Crude prices.
Both WTI and Brent have surged in recent days and were set for a second consecutive weekly gain on Friday as the war premium that emerged when Hamas attacked Israel earlier this month is still very much present. This adds to the bullish news that the U.S. Department of Energy is seeking to buy 6 million barrels of crude for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).
The U.S. benchmark, WTI Crude, has already risen by around 10% since the Hamas-Israel war began two weeks ago. As of early Friday ET, the front-month WTI futures traded 1.17% higher at $90.08.
"The risk premium in crude has shot up again," Vandana Hari, founder of consultancy Vanda Insights, told Bloomberg. "As long as the Israel-Hamas tensions run high, crude will remain susceptible to further spikes on signs of an escalation."
"The prospect of more Venezuela oil did little to ease concerns of disruptions in the Middle East," ANZ analysts said in a note quoted by Reuters.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
Charles is a writer for Oilprice.com More