Speculative, or noncommercial, traders held a net short position of 162,599, down 6,881 from 169,440 a week ago. The cut in their short position was nearly 15 times greater than the modest reduction in their long position.
Open interest was 960,129, down 17,128 from the previous week.
Commercial traders were net long in futures-only contracts by 145,175 contracts, down 5,274 from a week earlier, after cutting both long and short positions in the week.
The net long position is the difference between the number of long positions, or bets that prices will rise, and short positions, or bets that prices will fall.
Benchmark natural-gas futures on the Nymex rose 10.5 cents during the period covered by the CFTC data.
Money managers, such as hedge funds, bet that prices will fall, raising their net short position in Nymex natural-gas futures to 123,169 from 121,774 contracts in the previous week. These traders trimmed their longs by more than they reduced their shorts in the week.
The CFTC began splitting large traders into four categories in September 2009. Money managers and other reportables comprise the previous "noncommercial" column, while swap dealers and producers, merchants, processors and users were broken out of the commercial category.
Traders could turn their attention the weather forecasts for next week, where weather forecasts signaled that temperatures could drop below their average in several parts of theUnited States, and that could provide natural gas prices with more bullish momentum on speculations rising demand for the heating fuel. For the latest updates PRESS CTR + D or visit Stock Market news Today
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