Investment bank and Ratings agencies cuts its oil price outlook

Oil prices came under renewed pressure as data revealed that hedge funds had upped their short positions on U.S. crude last week, as the strength of China's economy continues to weigh on commodity prices.

Data from the CFTC's (U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission) commitment of traders report Friday showed that managed money traders, which largely refers to hedge fund activity, showed some 27,694 short contracts were added last week. These are essentially traders taking bets that the price of oil will fall and compared to 7,073 long contracts that were added in the week ending October 27.

In total, managed money traders have 273,436 long positions, compared with 134,264 short positions, the report said.

Brent crude and U.S. crude futures both fell over 1% following more weak Chinese economic data. Factory activity fell in the world's second largest economy for an eighth straight month in October.

Supply worries also weighed on the price, after Russia also reported that its October oil production hit a post-Soviet record of 10.78 million barrels per day.

Goldman Sachs, amongst the biggest bears on the oil price. The investment bank downgraded its price outlook for WTI crude to $42, $40 and $45 per barrel over a 3, 6 and 12-month time horizon respectively.

Ratings agency Moody's also cut its price outlook for the both Brent crude and WTI. The agency downgraded its price assumption for 2016 on Brent crude to $53 per barrel, down from $57. WTI was cut to $48 from $52 per barrel.