Insight - Hedge funds buy US crude ahead of big freeze

Weather factor: Pump jacks operate in the Permian Basin in Midland, Texas. Forecast freezing weather, which has now arrived, was expected to hit oil and gas production across the Great Plains and down into the Permian Basin, temporarily curbing crude supply in the United States. — Bloomberg

HEDGE funds purchased more petroleum last week, but buying was almost entirely concentrated in West Texas Intermediate (WTI), which suggests it was driven by the prospect of freezing weather temporarily hitting US oil production.

Hedge funds and other money managers purchased the equivalent of 33 million barrels in the six most important petroleum-linked futures and options contracts in the week to Feb 9.