Breaking its string of days with advances at nine, the naturalgas futures market sifted lower yesterday as traders learned that atropical storm they had been watching on Friday would likely not bea threat to gas production in the Gulf of Mexico. The prompt monthtook the news on the chin, tumbling 15.7 cents to finish at $4.318.Estimated volume confirmed the move, with 37,472 contracts changinghands.

“It was like the air being let out of a beach ball,” said TomSaal of Miami-based Pioneer Futures. “As soon as the marketrealized that Beryl was not a threat, you had to be a seller.”

Tropical Storm Beryl became the second named storm in theAtlantic hurricane season yesterday, with maximum sustained windsof 55 knots. Although some increase in strength is expected throughthis afternoon, the speed at which Beryl is moving to theWest-Northwest may cause it to hit land before it can mature tohurricane status, according to the National Hurricane Center. Inthe Atlantic, there are several tropical waves, which have littlechance of strengthening over the next day or so.

Although some traders thought it odd that natural gas futureswould slip more than 3% on the day a tropical storm develops in theGulf of Mexico, others would argue that the conditions were ripefor a sell-off. “We had a solid week of hurricane hype,” said Saalreferring to the 17.9-cent run-up experienced by the prompt monthlast week. “We saw good selling by traders and locals.”

“There’s something about Monday,” another trader said mocking ahit comedy movie from two summers ago. “It has paid to be a selleron Monday,” he explained. He has a point because six of the lastseven week’s have begun as losing ones for gas futures — three ofwhich have been of double-digit drops.

Looking ahead, Saal now focuses on fresh data to be released bythe American Gas Association Wednesday. For him, an injection ofanything less than 50 Bcf will be bullish and anything greater than60 Bcf will be bearish. The comparable figure from a year ago is 51Bcf.

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