They Know More Than We Do?

(Bloomberg) -- Investors are exiting the oil- futures market at the fastest pace since the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. amid evidence the global economic recovery is slowing.

Bets on West Texas Intermediate crude slumped 13.2 percent in the 60 days through July 20 to the lowest level since November, data from CME Group Inc.’s New York Mercantile Exchange and London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange show. The last time open interest fell more was the 13.7 percent decline over the similar period through Oct. 7, 2008, three weeks after Lehman filed for the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

“There’s very little conviction among our customer base in terms of where we are in the global economic cycle,” Sabine Schels, a commodity strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said in an interview in London. “The flows are very low, and I think it has to do with the fact that the macro environment is very uncertain right now.”