The latest Commitments of Traders report was released, covering positions through Tuesday

The 3-Year Min/Max Screen shows no new extremes again this week. For the most part, "smart money" commercial hedgers added slightly to existing positions or started to reverse a few, but there were no huge moves. In palladium, the other white metal, hedgers continue to hold a relatively small net short position, less than 20% of open interest. According to the Backtest Engine, over the past 15 years this has preceded a higher price in the metal 3 months later 83% of the time (49 out of 59 weeks). In lean hogs, they're short more than 54,000 contracts, or 20% of open interest, which has preceded gains only 41% of the time. In major equity index futures, hedgers are now net long again. Curiously, small speculators are also net long more than $16 billion worth of contracts, among the greatest amounts of the past decade.