Hedge funds betting on summer gasoline demand raised their bullish bets on U.S. crude futures this week, just before the market’s crash on Friday on Britain’s shock decision to leave the European Union, trade data showed. Money managers, including hedge funds and other big speculators, boosted their combined net longs in U.S. crude futures and options in both New York and London by 18,000 contracts to 216,003 contracts in the week to June 21, data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) showed. It was the first rise in three weeks in net longs held by the group as U.S. crude’s benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures began to rise toward the psychological $50 a barrel mark after choppy trades the previous fortnight. But the higher price wagers appeared ill-timed given WTI’s 5 percent plunge on Friday to settle at $47.64 after the unexpected British exit, or Brexit, […]