After watching the market free-fall 7.1 cents to kick off theweek, bulls dug in their heels Tuesday at Nymex. While they weren’table to recoup much of Monday’s declines, they did prevent anyfurther losses. As a result, the futures market was stagnantyesterday, with the July contract limited to an extremely tight3-cent trading range before settling up 0.1 at $2.238.

Tuesday’s quiet market gave traders the opportunity tohypothesize about the direction of the July contract heading intoits expiration next Monday. And while the consensus is far fromunanimous, most think bearish fundamental factors should continueto usher the market lower. “Weather is mild, storage is neutral andthere are no hurricanes to speak of,” a Texas marketer surmised.

On the other hand, the technical picture is still a littlenebulous. The New York-based Pegasus Econometric Group believesthat since the market touched the upper edge of support that existsfrom $2.21 down to $2.17, there is a fair chance for a rally beforeor after today’s release of fresh American Gas Association storagedata. “Heating demand may have limited refills to less than the 82Bcf from a year ago, in which case the market could see someturbulence off the report. We want to be prepared for injections of70 Bcf or less, just in case,” the group wrote in its June 22 PowerReport. Other preliminary estimates for today’s storage refillcenter on the 80-90 Bcf range.

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