Europe’s largest oil exchange-traded commodity (ETC) recorded $112m inflows last week as investors took advantage of collapsing oil prices.
The cost of a barrel fell below $69 last Wednesday, 20% down from its October high and its lowest price since August, on the back of the Omicron variant causing travel disruption.
As a result, investors bought the dip, piling $112m into the $1.5bn WisdomTree WTI Crude Oil ETC (CRUD) in the week ending 3 December, according to data from Ultumus.
In a note, the Bank of America (BoA) said: “Amid the drop in oil prices, clients continued to buy energy stocks and inflows accelerated compared to the prior week. Our oil and gas team lowered their price objectives.”
It means CRUD has recorded net outflows of $529m year to date, despite returning 61% over the same period.
Oil has recovered 10% since 1 December to $75.8 a barrel, with around two thirds of the price slide being corrected with fears the Omicron variant hit travel demands being overestimated.
On the back of the fall, BoA said it saw a downside risk to its $85 a barrel forecast for 2022 and suspended its $120 a barrel by the summer of 2022 prediction, made in October.
“We highlighted three risks to oil in 2022: a strategic petroleum reserve release, a new Iran deal, and a new COVID-19 strain. Two of these three headwinds for oil materialised in just a week,” BoA said.
“We now see downside risks to our $85 Brent crude oil price forecast in 2022 and suspend our $120 forecast for the summer of 2022 until more medical information emerges on Omicron.”
In addition, the commodity seems to have shrugged off its supply risk with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) committing to increasing its output to 400,000 in January.
