Chicago -- (Kitco News) --Investors’ interest in gold futures remains apparent as they added to long positions, while a sharp break in copper price caused speculators to exit bullish futures trades, according to U.S. government data.

In the U.S. weekly Commitment of Traders report from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, managed-money accounts in the disaggregated futures and options combined report increased their long positions by 20,420 contracts for gold traded on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. They now stand long 202,471 contracts in the week ended Aug. 24, their biggest net-long position since June 29. Similarly non-commercials added 17,914 contracts in the legacy futures and options report, and stand net-long 245,456 contracts.

During the reporting period from Aug. 18 to Aug. 24, gold prices were little changed, rising only $2 an ounce. On the last reporting day, Aug. 24, prices fell sharply but managed to cut losses by day’s end. On the week, gold eked out about a $9 gain.

Ken Morrison, founder and editor of Morrison on the Markets, said he was “a little surprised” to see funds adding to their long positions before the price trend broke. Given the meandering movements in gold, he considers himself “ambivalent” on the yellow metal.

In the rest of the categories of the CFTC data, swaps dealers are net-short 107,285 gold contracts, having added about 7,600 short positions. Producers are net-short 181,676 contracts, increasing their short positions by a little more than 9,100.

Copper saw a big drop it its long holdings by managed-money accounts. In the disaggregated report, speculators cut their net-long positions by 4,217 positions to end up net-long 14,855 contracts. The drop is more pronounced in the legacy report, with the non-commercials net-long 9,383, a drop of 4,838 positions.

Jitters about the health of the global economy weighed on copper prices during the reporting period. Prices fell 10.85 cents a pound in that week and declined   further. Prices managed to rally back by Friday, however, to end roughly with a 7 cent gain on the week.

For the rest of the metals, the CFTC data is largely benign, with speculators cutting long exposure across the board. In the disaggregated futures and options, managed-money positions in silver were 27,244 net-long. For PGMs, managed-money accounts are net-long platinum 14,865 contracts and net-long palladium by 9,528 contracts.

For further information, please go to www.CFTC.gov

By Debbie Carlson, of Kitco News;dcarlson@kitco.com.

Editor’s Note: Meet the Kitco News Team at the upcoming Kitco Metals eConference September 12-13, 2010. A not-to-be missed event featuring Ron Paul, Marc Faber and other industry heavyweights. The eConference is free with Pre- Registration www.kitcoeconf.com.

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