Adding to Monday’s gains the natural gas futures continuedhigher at Nymex yesterday as technical buying lifted the Junecontract in active trading. And with that 4.8-cent rally to $2.359,June was able to successfully fill in $2.31-33 daily chart gap andnotch its highest daily close in more than a year.

Lack of tangible supply or demand factors forced even the mostdyed-in- the-wool fundamental traders to admit that the market’srecent advances can be blamed solely on technical dealings. “Thisis a purely technical move. Futures are moving higher and cash istrying to keep pace. There is no weather to speak of in Texas orthe Southeast,” offered a Houston marketer. He added that cashprices moved higher despite the displaced demand associated with anumber of nuclear power plants coming back off planned maintenance.

However, it will be hard to ignore fundamental factors thisafternoon when the American Gas Association releases its weeklystorage report, which market observers believe will feature a 20-40Bcf injection. A figure of that magnitude will pale in comparisonwith last year’s 78 Bcf tally, further compressing the 175 Bcfsurplus to last year.

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