对冲基金将焦点转向燃料油

据路透社9月2日报道，对冲基金继续将其头寸从原油转到燃料油上，特别是汽油，北美、欧洲和中东在夏季假期期间交易清淡。

在截至8月25日的一周内，对冲基金和其他基金经理卖出了相当于1000万桶的最重要的六种石油期货和期权合约。这些销售逆转了前一周1200万桶的购买量，但总体状况自7月中旬以来没有明显变化。

不过，在全球范围内，基金经理仍在继续卖出原油、买进燃料油，这一趋势在上周也很明显。投资组合经理卖出了NYMEX和ICE WTI(减少1500万桶)、美国柴油(300万桶)和欧洲汽油(减少500万桶)，同时买入布伦特原油(增加400万桶)和美国汽油(增加900万桶)。

由于缺乏有关整体价格走向的强烈信号，基金经理们正专注于相对价值，推测炼油利润率将从最近非常低迷的水平有所提高。

炼油利润率低迷的局面不太可能持续下去，这表明燃料油价格在中期内的表现将强于原油价格，这解释了头寸轮换的原因。

王佳晶 摘译自 路透社

原文如下：

Funds focus on oil refining margins

Hedge funds continued to rotate their positions from crude to fuels, especially gasoline, in light trading during the summer vacation period in North America, Europe and the Middle East.

Hedge funds and other money managers sold the equivalent of 10 million barrels in the six most important petroleum futures and options contracts in the week to Aug. 25.

Those sales reversed purchases of 12 million barrels the week before, but the overall position has not changed significantly since mid-July.

Within the global total, however, fund managers have continued to sell crude and buy fuels, a trend evident last week as well.

Portfolio managers sold NYMEX and ICE WTI (-15 million barrels), U.S. diesel (-3 million) and European gasoil (-5 million) while buying Brent (+4 million) and U.S. gasoline (+9 million).

In the absence of strong signals about the overall price direction, fund managers are concentrating on relative value plays, speculating refining margins will have to improve from their recent very depressed levels.

Depressed refining margins are unlikely to be sustainable, suggesting fuel prices will perform more strongly than crude in the medium term, explaining the rotation in positions.