For the fifth Monday in a row the bears were dominant in the pitat Nymex as trade and speculative selling pushed natural gas down,effectively erasing gains registered on Friday. Most of the day’smovement happened on the open, leaving the August contract to tradein the mid $1.90s for the rest of the day before closing at $1.965,down 6.6 cents.

Analysts were surprised by the market’s inability to continuehigher on Friday’s momentum, which, many felt had set the stage fora short-term correction. A broker felt the weekend acted as areality-check period for buyers. “Sure we saw some short coveringon Friday, but there was no follow-through buying [Monday] tosustain the advance. As soon as the rally looked in jeopardy,sellers were right back at it.”

Looking ahead to the August expiration Wednesday, Tom Saal ofPioneer Futures in Miami targets support at the $1.915 low for theyear. Resistance is ratcheted lower each day coinciding with thedowntrend line. That places resistance at $2.05 Monday, $2.02-03Tuesday, and $2.00 on Wednesday.

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