Access trading kept traders on their toes late last week. Aftera more than 7-cent rally in last Wednesday’s computer-only tradingsession, the June contract doubled back Thursday evening, slippingmore than 5 cents lower before Friday’s open. And the selling wouldnot stop there as bears continued their push toward lower pricesthroughout the trading session Friday. June finished down 8.6 centsfor the day at $2.253.

“What a difference a day can make,” quipped a trader who wasmore than surprised by the market’s about-face leading into theweekend. “I guess the market wasn’t quite ready for $2.40 gas,” heoffered. Sandy Trot and other prominent local traders were”aggressive buyers” Thursday in an attempt to push the Junecontract higher, a source noted. “But there was little support fromother market segments and [locals] were forced to cover into theweekend.”

“A technical headfake,” was the Pegasus Power Report’sexplanation for the choppy trading last week. “When natural gasfutures failed to better their overnight highs [Wednesday] itencouraged profit-taking into the close [Thursday] and furtherselling on Access. However, the group remains bullish onfundamentals, adding that the next couple storage injections willbe hard pressed to keep pace with the 78 and 100 Bcf refills oflast year. “This pullback seems to be a test of nerve for recentbuyers rather than a shift in the underlying fundamentals,” Pegasussaid.

Tom Saal of Miami-based Pioneer Futures, on the other handremains unimpressed with the low storage figures and feels themarket should continue lower for at least a couple more days. “Fromthere it is anyone’s guess. But the one thing that you can count onis volatility-it’s back and price swings like we saw [last] weekwill happen with more frequency in the months to come,” hespeculated.

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