Hedge fund managers and other large speculators increased their net long position in New York crude oil futures in the week to Sept. 8, according to U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data.

Speculative long positions, or bets prices will rise, outnumbered short positions by 33,112 contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the Washington-based commission said Sept. 11 in its Commitments of Traders report. Net-long positions rose by 4,518 contracts, or 16 percent, from a week earlier.

“There definitely seems to be a bit of significant resistance being encountered once we get into the $70s,” said Toby Hassall, a research analyst at CWA Global Markets in Sydney.

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Tags: commodity futures trading, crude oil futures, fund-managers, futures-trading-commission, research analyst