By Claudia Assis
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Managed money reduced bets that natural-gas futures will go higher, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. They sold 13,772 long contracts for the week ended Feb. 8, and in turn added 21,602 short contracts, or bets natural gas will go lower. This has reduced net long positions to nearly 72,000 contracts, the lowest since late December, Tim Evans, an analyst with Citigroup's Citi Futures Perspective, said in a note to clients. Natural gas (NGH11 3.90, -0.08, -1.91%) ended at $3.91 per million British thermal units Friday, its lowest since mid November.
