(Bloomberg) Citigroup Inc. expects hedge funds to bet on rising natural gas by the end of the year as strong demand and slowing production help push prices toward the mid-$3 range in 2017.
Money managers will probably hold more long positions than short by the end of the year, unless the winter is mild, Citigroup analysts including Anthony Yuen said in an Aug. 3 note. Speculators have reduced their net short positions in natural gas on the New York Mercantile Exchange from a seven-year high of 228,000 futures and options in November 2015 to about 43,000 as of last week, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission data.