The United States Oil Fund (USO) is once again shaking up oil markets, and WTI is now down more than 21% on the day.
The USO Fund's administration, USCF, announced on Monday that it intends to sell off all of its WTI contracts for June delivery-that's all its front-month contracts that the fund was designed to invest in. Instead, the fund will now focus on futures contracts that are further out. The USO's breakdown will now be comprised of 30% in the July contract, 15% each in the August, September, October, and December contracts, and 10% in the June 2021 contract.
The June 2020 contract fell $3.85 on Monday to $13.09 by 3:52 p.m. EDT. Meanwhile, the July contract is trading $5 higher, and the August contract $8 higher at $21.47.
The USO fund is pulling out of all its near-term contracts over the course of the next few days, sending oil prices reeling once again.
The shift away from front-month contracts will amount to dumping 20% of its $3.6 billion portfolio over the next few days, Financial Times reports, citing a regulatory filing by USO.
The USO said that it would make the move because of the "evolving market conditions, regulatory accountability levels and position limits being imposed on USO with respect to oil futures contracts."
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group. More
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