According to Bloomberg, oil exchange-traded funds posted their largest week of outflows for more than a year, led by a record withdrawal from the crude market’s biggest ETF.

Investors pulled out almost $200 million in a single day from WisdomTree’s Brent crude oil ETF (BRNT.LSE), which in January upstaged USO, the United States Oil Fund, and became the biggest in the sector. That was the biggest outflow since its inception. There were also withdrawals from the United States Oil Fund seeing its biggest weekly outflow since December.

Investors are cashing in on long-only oil ETFs after crude prices surged above $80 a barrel for the first time since April. Brent crude futures are expected to rise about 14% this month amid a strong demand outlook, OPEC+ production cuts and growing confidence in the macroeconomic outlook as traders bet the Fed's rate hikes may be coming to an end.

Investors poured money into WisdomTree's Brent fund in late 2022, helping it climb by more than 10-fold today from about $200 million in December. As a result, it is also more prone to larger withdrawals than in the past.

Overall, a basket of 14 oil ETFs saw outflows of more than $400 million last week, the most since March 2022, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, as investors see a negative gap between presented quarterly earnings figures and mostly bleak guidance.