By Jeanine Prezioso
NEW YORK, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Money managers cut a hefty amount of net short positions in natural gas futures last week, taking profit from a couple of brief moves higher.
Money managers, which include commodity trading advisors, pool operators and hedge funds, cut 10,004 contracts from their net short position, remaining net short by 139,257 lots, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in a report Friday. (Graphic of CFTC data: http://link.reuters.com/gap67p)
The CFTC reports its data on Friday collected through the week-ended on the previous Tuesday.
'Up until Tuesday it had come up a bit,' said Kyle Cooper, director of research with IAF Advisors in Houston. 'It was probably traders taking some profits off the table.'
Futures also ended higher on Sept. 28, as the New York Mercantile Exchange October contract expired, settling 3.7 cents higher at $3.837.
Apart from the those two rises, the market has reason to remain short overall, analysts said.
Natural gas has lost 40 percent of its value since January and front-month futures hit a one-year low on Thursday at $3.61.
Oil services firm Baker Hughes Inc reported on Friday that the number of horizontal rigs drilling for natural gas hit an all-time high at 929, while the overall gas rig count rose to 971 for the first time in three weeks.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that 85 billion cubic feet of gas were injected into storage last week, a larger number than the market expected that brought inventories to 3.499 trillion cubic feet, a level not usually reached until the beginning of November.
Money managers added 6,474 futures equivalents to their net short futures and options combined position last week, the CFTC said, bringing the net short position to 102,899.
For the week ended Oct. 5, total NYMEX natural gas futures open interest, or the number of longs or shorts outstanding, gained 17,562 contracts to 791,682.
(Reporting by Jeanine Prezioso; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) Keywords: NATGAS CFTC/USA (jeanine.prezioso@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 6241 Reuters Messaging: jeanine.prezioso.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
NEW YORK, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Money managers cut a hefty amount of net short positions in natural gas futures last week, taking profit from a couple of brief moves higher.
Money managers, which include commodity trading advisors, pool operators and hedge funds, cut 10,004 contracts from their net short position, remaining net short by 139,257 lots, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in a report Friday. (Graphic of CFTC data: http://link.reuters.com/gap67p)
The CFTC reports its data on Friday collected through the week-ended on the previous Tuesday.
'Up until Tuesday it had come up a bit,' said Kyle Cooper, director of research with IAF Advisors in Houston. 'It was probably traders taking some profits off the table.'
Futures also ended higher on Sept. 28, as the New York Mercantile Exchange October contract expired, settling 3.7 cents higher at $3.837.
Apart from the those two rises, the market has reason to remain short overall, analysts said.
Natural gas has lost 40 percent of its value since January and front-month futures hit a one-year low on Thursday at $3.61.
Oil services firm Baker Hughes Inc reported on Friday that the number of horizontal rigs drilling for natural gas hit an all-time high at 929, while the overall gas rig count rose to 971 for the first time in three weeks.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that 85 billion cubic feet of gas were injected into storage last week, a larger number than the market expected that brought inventories to 3.499 trillion cubic feet, a level not usually reached until the beginning of November.
Money managers added 6,474 futures equivalents to their net short futures and options combined position last week, the CFTC said, bringing the net short position to 102,899.
For the week ended Oct. 5, total NYMEX natural gas futures open interest, or the number of longs or shorts outstanding, gained 17,562 contracts to 791,682.
(Reporting by Jeanine Prezioso; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) Keywords: NATGAS CFTC/USA (jeanine.prezioso@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 6241 Reuters Messaging: jeanine.prezioso.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.