Hedge funds increased bets on rising oil prices to an eight-month high amid signs U.S. production is slowing. Speculators boosted their net-long position in West Texas Intermediate crude by 9 percent in the seven days ended April 14 to the highest since August, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. The government projects that shale oil output will decline in May and total production will start to drop in June. WTI futures slid 69 cents to $53.29 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange in the period covered by the CFTC report.