Bullish Oil Funds Profits Drop

Many of last year’s successful oil market bulls have seen their winnings dissolve in the first half of this year, as the crude price has wallowed below $50 a barrel despite output cuts by some of the world’s largest producers, Reuters reported. Three of the top five worst-performing hedge funds in the first half of the year, specialize in trading oil, directly or indirectly, according to a list compiled by HSBC. Two of those had led the performance charts in 2016. The oil market has been struggling to absorb a surplus of unused crude but when the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and 11 partners agreed late last year to cut output for the first time in eight years, bulls pushed the price up to a one-year high above $50 a barrel. But as this year has worn on, OPEC’s failure to erase a multi-million-barrel overhang and shale oil’s dominance have become apparent, stripping 15% off the crude price.