Nymex futures gave an early “head fake” looking to rebound fromlosses registered on Tuesday, but the move was insubstantial,giving way to minor softening before the close Wednesday. That leftthe market still in limbo without a clear signal whether the bottomhad been reached. The August contract slipped 1.7 cents to settleat $1.934 during relatively high volume of 82,830.

The Pegasus Econometric Group of New York does not rule out thepossibility a bottom has been reached but remains skeptical themarket will rebound in the near-term. They believe a “V” bottom isunlikely as “the market has only a moderate number of speculativeshorts vulnerable to short covering and there is no fundamentaltrigger to ignite a sustained advance.”

However, Susannah Hardesty of Energy Research and Trading Inc.,takes a slightly different tack. Hardesty has been looking for thisdownturn since speaking at GasMart Power 98′ in May when shepredicted “the first summer bottom would come before July 24, 1998on a move to the $2.00 level.” She is not completely satisfied thebottom was reached Wednesday, needing only “a little upwardmomentum to confirm the bottom has been set.” She feels thespeculative players have liquidated most of their positions and areready to start building them back up. However, Hardesty targets the$2.00-1.85 level, possibly extending down to $1.70 to serve as asecond summer low. The timing for this would be late August on a”purely weather-related move lower.”

The AGA storage report (see page 2) was met with moderate buyingin Wednesday night’s Access trading session, leaving the promptmonth up 3.1 cents to $1.965.

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