Their net short in copper increased by 3,949 to 6,757 lots and while their net long in gold increased by seven to 77,325 contracts. On silver, speculators trimmed their net long position by 104 to 4,912 contracts. Last week, money managers switched to a net short copper position for the first time since January, as market fretted about the impact of a possible exit by from the euro zone and the region’s deepening debt crisis. “It reinforces the already negative sentiment about increasing copper stockpile and production indexes around the world were very weak,” said Frank McGhee, head precious metals trader of Integrated Brokerage Services Llc. Gold prices lost 6 percent in May and copper prices were heavily pressured as the European debt crisis and signs of slowing economic growth in the United States and other parts of the world hurt metals and commodities. On Friday, gold surged 4 percent, its biggest one-day rise in more than three years, as a surprisingly weak U.S. payrolls report added to fears about a global economic slowdown and fueled talk of further U.S. monetary easing. On next week’s CFTC report, McGhee said that gold’s net long could post a big jump on expectations of imminent actions by central banks to boost economic growth.
