Following Monday’s dramatic price rout, Tuesday’s tradingexhibited a more sedate demeanor, leaving the December contract totrade within a narrow 6.5-cent range. And while the late-afternoonsell-off had bulls running for cover Monday, consolidation of thoselosses gave them a ray of hope before the close yesterday. Thatrebound was enough to lift the prompt month 3.6-cents to $2.478.

“Futures were looking for a sense of equilibrium [Tuesday]following [Monday’s] losses,” a marketer commented. “The drop inprices was nothing more than a correction from the hugecash-futures spread that was out there.”

A New York-based analyst agrees the market has returned tosomewhat more normal futures-cash premium, but warns it might be infor choppy, range-bound trading to either side of December’s 40-daymoving average. That average was $2.478 Tuesday. He said a strategyof buying moves over the 40-day, and selling moves below it wouldbe profitable for small moves to either side until the marketreceives a clearer fundamental picture.

That clearer picture may come as soon as this afternoon when theAmerican Gas Association releases the latest storage data.Estimates vary widely as to whether the market will set a newall-time storage total with an injection of more than 5 Bcf, or iftoday’s estimate will show the first net withdrawal of the season.On balance, the majority of the predictions call for the formerscenario with a net refill in the 20-40 Bcf range.

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