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

The 3-Year Min/Max Screen shows that "smart money" commercial hedgers only established one new extreme this week. They're now holding more than 160,000 contracts net short in agricultural markets, a record short exposure. In previous years, a big short position preceded an almost immediate peak in commodity markets. Still, as we've been noting since last fall, our current instance is acting differently than prior ones, suggesting these markets are in a new (more positive) market environment. Most other contracts showed only small changes. One standout is in major equity index futures. Speculators are on the other side of hedgers' positions, and large speculators in particular bought a net $20.6 billion in those contracts, the 5th-largest one-week purchase ever. The others led to losses or small gains over the next 1-2 months.