Getting a little boost from the $1.53 uptick in crude futures, August natural gas futures steadily climbed throughout Wednesday to settle 7.2 cents up at $5.977. The prompt month registered its second consecutive day higher following Monday’s 28.4-cent collapse, which brought August just below $6.

Wednesday’s action saw August fall short of reclaiming the $6 territory, reaching a high of $5.99 in late afternoon trading. Crude once again topped the $40 mark, closing up at $40.97 due to an Iraqi port concern during the day.

“The natural [gas] put out a little bottom Tuesday,” said George Leide of Rafferty Technical Research in New York. “It has been oversold.” He noted that the market got down to $5.82 on Tuesday, but was able to reach a high of $5.99 on Wednesday. “I don’t think we are going much higher than here, maybe the low $6 area,” he said, adding that the only thing that would change his view is if the market could get back above $6.15.

“Until then, I am bearish, looking for a test of the $5.75-5.78 area, which we almost got down to on Tuesday,” he said. “This is just a correction of an oversold condition. The market was technically in trouble for the last three to four days. We broke some key support levels before getting down to Tuesday’s $5.82.”

Leide pointed out that the fall could be attributed to a number of factors, including the recent moderating weather forecasts. “The rest of it was technical market stuff,” he said, noting that the daily charts started looking “ugly.”

The broker said that natural gas futures were dragged up by crude futures on Wednesday. “Crude was doing nothing all day after the [inventory reports came out] until a story hit the wires about a Korean oil tanker refusing to pick up its load at an Iraqi port due to security concerns,” Leide said. “With nothing else today it goosed the market, but it is kind of meaningless. In fact, a European tanker came in right after that and took the load out.”

Turning attention to the Energy Information Administration’s natural gas storage report for the week ended July 9, Leide said that while he had heard reports of a 100-104 Bcf build, his survey showed an average build of 98 Bcf. Other estimates have the report pinned anywhere between a build of 95-107 Bcf. The actual injection number will be compared to a 95 Bcf build from last year and a 77 Bcf five-year average.

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