Natural gas futures pared their losses in early trading Wednesday, though an unimpressive summer forecast, coupled with technical factors, kept open the possibility of further downside ahead. 

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

Coming off a 7.9-cent sell-off in the previous session, the June Nymex contract was up 4.6 cents to $2.367/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET. July was up 5.2 cents to $2.541.

Looking at the technicals for the July contract, set to take over as the prompt month after this week, bulls need to quickly establish a bottom to prevent prices from sliding toward $2 or potentially lower, according to ICAP Technical Analysis.

“Have the .618 retracement at $2.456. Have the .7862 retracement at $2.358. Have the prior low at $2.233,” ICAP analyst Brian LaRose told clients following Tuesday’s...