Traders love to fill in chart gaps and Monday’s strong open leftnot a wide chasm, but a small and clearly defined gap between $2.04and $2.05. To that end, sellers wasted no time Tuesday in pushingthe July contract lower. And once the gap was filled in thecontract continued to fall, settling at $1.989, down 11.1 cents.

A Houston marketer was surprised, not by the direction themarket took yesterday, but by the magnitude of the decline. “Localsand speculative traders were heavy sellers Tuesday morning on themove to $2.04, but the surprising thing was the lack of tradebuying in the $2.01-03 area. July basically had no impediments inits move lower.” Instead, the commercials waited to buy until the$1.97-98 level, buoying the contract slightly before the closingbell, he said.

Looking ahead to today’s activity, one analyst believespredictions of a large storage injection could fuel continuedsoftening ahead of this afternoon’s AGA report. “The market isexpecting refills on the order of 95-105 Bcf. I am looking for arelatively quiet day with more selling pressure. However, if themarket moves to the $1.95 area buyers will be very hard pressed notto step in.

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