According to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Hedge Fund Monitor, hedge funds increased their bullish bets on the Russell 2000 and they lowered their bearish bets on the S&P 500 last week as well.

The weekly Commitment of Traders report on the S&P 500 also showed an increase in bullish holdings with large speculators increasing their net long position to 11,688 contracts which is the biggest net long position since last June.

The other two classifications of investors showed even more dramatic changes in their holding of S&P 500 contracts. The commercial hedger group increased their net long position to 43,676 contracts which is the biggest net long position by the group since September 2011. Meanwhile the small speculator group saw an increase in bearish bets and is now net short over 55,000 contracts and that is the biggest net short position by this group in over nine years.

According to the Merrill Lynch report, hedge funds continued to sell gold and oil contracts and that sentiment was echoed on the commitment of traders report for both commodities.