Hedge funds are becoming steadily less bearish towards oil as OPEC output cuts and U.S. sanctions on Venezuela remove large volumes of crude from the market amid increasing confidence a global recession can be averted. Hedge funds and other money managers were net buyers of another 30 million barrels of Brent crude futures and options in the week to Jan. 29, according to position data from ICE Futures Europe. Fund managers have been net buyers in seven of the last eight weeks and have increased their position by 96 million barrels since Dec. 4 ( tmsnrt.rs/2Bfloe4 ). In common with previous weeks, fund managers mostly closed out old bearish short positions (-18 million barrels) rather than opening new bullish long ones (+12 […]