September debuted as the spot Nymex contract Thursday in afairly uneventful fashion, by first trading briefly higher, beforelight selling pushed the market down to settle at $1.906, a 2.7cent loss for the day. Traders continue to point to the currentdowntrend that “exerts its influence on this market at every turn,”as a reason for the move lower. “[Thursday] there was not muchimpetus to move higher or lower, but the mentality in this marketcontinues to be buy little dips and sell the rest of the time,” atrader offered.

Now that expiration related trading has passed, the futuresmarket has turned to the cash market and underlying fundamentalsfor direction, sources agreed. A Houston marketer said the Julycash market was the only bullish factor today. “Incremental priceswere strong this morning and futures took the opportunity to trendhigher, however cash trading was finished in just over an hour andthen the market had the aerodynamics of a rock.” That pushedSeptember lower before meeting support at $1.890.

Looking ahead, an analyst feels the short term weather outlook,calling for a low pressure trough to bring some relief to themiddle of the country by midweek, could be enough to propel themarket lower. He may have been right. As of 5:30 EST the Septembercontract was down 3.9 cents to $1.867. Support now exist at$1.78-80.

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