Natural gas futures pared their losses in early trading Wednesday, though an unimpressive summer forecast, coupled with technical factors, kept open the possibility of further downside ahead.
Coming off a 7.9-cent sell-off in the previous session, the June Nymex contract was up 4.6 cents to $2.367/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET. July was up 5.2 cents to $2.541.
Looking at the technicals for the July contract, set to take over as the prompt month after this week, bulls need to quickly establish a bottom to prevent prices from sliding toward $2 or potentially lower, according to ICAP Technical Analysis.
“Have the .618 retracement at $2.456. Have the .7862 retracement at $2.358. Have the prior low at $2.233,” ICAP analyst Brian LaRose told clients following Tuesday’s...