Natural gas futures streaked higher again on Wednesday with more than firm support from the neighboring crude futures market. June natural gas reached a high of $11.683 before closing out the regular session at $11.640, up 27.5 cents from Tuesday’s close.

While natural gas futures put up impressive back-to-back gains over the last two regular sessions, crude was once again the scene stealer as the July contract Wednesday put in a $133.38/bbl high before closing the day at $133.17/bbl, good for a $4.19 gain from Tuesday.

“I think the big bullish story here is really still the uptrend on the petroleum side. In that context, natural gas still looks really cheap,” said Tim Evans, an analyst with Citi Futures Perspective. “The running joke is whether T. Boone Pickens’ call Tuesday for $150/bbl crude by the end of the year was actually a prediction for the end of the week. If you rally more than $4 a day, it doesn’t take you very long to get to $150/bbl.”

Evans said there is a number of things impacting natural gas futures right now. “Going into Thursday’s storage report for the week ended May 16, both Dow Jones and Reuters are looking for an 85 Bcf injection. That is not that far from the 91 Bcf five-year average injection,” he said. “If it comes in at 85 Bcf, then that is slightly supportive, but it doesn’t take the year-on-five-year average comparison outside of its recent range.”

Adding to the mix, Golden, CO-based Bentek Energy said their flow model was calling for an 89 Bcf injection, which would fall just under the five-year average.

“On the temperature front, we’ve got triple-digit temperatures out West and cooler temperatures in the East, so there might be some double-dipping with some cooling load out West and some heating demand in the East. However, it is not going to last. It is going to moderate out in both places and next week looks pretty benign. The other item that is still out there is the expected Independence Hub restart. That would be on the bearish side of the scale. We are running about $4.50 over the five-year average price for this time of year and $4 higher than the year-ago price.”

Evans said he sees crude as still calling the shots in the short term. “Near term, I would have to say natural gas prices are headed higher. I think we will tag along behind the crude oil market. While we won’t track dollar for dollar necessarily, it certainly will be a supportive element. I believe we’ll worry about the downside after the Independence Hub comes back.”

The last couple of sessions have made traders reassess what was thought to be a moderately bearish technical outlook. Before June futures staged a titanic leap on Tuesday of 41.1 cents to settle at $11.365, market technicians were thinking that the case for a continued bull run higher was faltering. Walter Zimmerman of United Energy said that prior to Tuesday it was “reverse higher or else time for the bulls.” The bulls were not to be denied. June vaulted higher and left the bullish case intact, so much so that higher prices are in their sights.

“Tuesday rallied to a $11.477 high and a bullish engulfing pattern on the daily chart. So the bullish case for another new high is still alive,” said Zimmerman. The cycle methodology and seasonal patterns that Zimmerman follows suggest still higher price objectives. “The wave count that pegged $10.830 key support suggests three highest probability upside targets: $12.120, $12.405 and $12.790,” he said in a recent note to clients.

The current high for this move in natural gas futures is $11.794.

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