For the second day in a row, the natural gas futures market wascaught in tug of war as traders weighed their options-either buyinto the recent rally or sell, expecting a return to thelong-standing downtrend. The indecision could be seen inyesterday’s price action where prices trended higher in the morningonly to turn sharply lower in the afternoon. The May contractfinished 4 cents lower at $2.096.

A Houston marketer said the schizophrenic futures activity alsocould be seen in cash market dealings, which experienced largebid-ask spreads for much of the morning. But in contrast to thefutures market, he felt sellers were the winners in cash trading asprices climbed throughout the morning.

Another source said the market was in a holding patternyesterday ahead of the release of the weekly storage data. “Therewas a good deal of uncertainty surrounding the size of theinjection. Expectations ranged from almost nothing to as much as a45 Bcf refill.”

And although the 30 Bcf injection released by the American GasAssociation last night was nestled within the range ofexpectations, bulls wasted little time last night in claiming it asa victory. The May contract rumbled higher in after-hours trading,posting a 3.4-cent gain to $2.13 by 6 p.m. EST.

Gas in underground storage facilities now totals 1,367 Bcf, 286more than the same time last year.

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