After watching prices tumble 10 cents in a tumultuous last hourof trading Thursday, bulls were quick to assume control of themarket Friday as they continued to add to their already hefty longpositions. The September contract finished at $2.698, up 5.1 centsfor the day and 15.5 for the week.

Looking ahead, traders are still divided on the issue of marketdirection in the days and weeks to come. “The next move is down,”exclaims Susannah Hardesty of Indiana-based Energy Research andTrading. “Prices peaked on the second top of the huge rollercoaster, (double topped at $2.75, testing the $2.72 highs of lastweek) and dropped significantly into the close of tradingThursday,” she wrote in the Aug. 5, 1999 Natural Gas Weekly Report.Her prediction is based on a number of factors including thefailure to remain above historical chart resistance at the $2.725high made on April 8, 1998, and the bearish storage and weather shelooks for this week.

However, Ed Kennedy of Miami-based Pioneer Futures disagreesthat the $2.72 and $2.75 highs from the last two Thursdaysrepresent a double top and maintains that by making a higher highthe market is still firmly in an uptrend. But before the market isable to tack on sizable gains, it may have to check lower, possiblyas low as the mid- to upper $2.50s, he said.

But many traders believe that if the market is going to make newhighs, it will need to receive a boost from the weather. Accordingto Brad Nesiba of Omaha-based Strategic Weather Services, thatcould come later this week, when above-normal temperatures findtheir way eastward.

“A trough of low pressure across the Northern Plains on the 18thand 19th should squeeze hot air back into sections of theMid-Atlantic and Northeast by next weekend. But this system willnot stick around like the last one so the above-normal temperatureswill be relatively short-lived,” Nesiba said. Will Texas see anyrelief? “Don’t bet on it,” he continued. “At this rate the onlything that will cause temperatures to moderate in Texas would besome sort of tropical activity in the Atlantic or Caribbean. Andeven that looks to be at least 2-3 weeks away.”

©Copyright 1999 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.