The futures market rebounded Friday, recapturing some of thelosses registered earlier in the week as light position squaringearly in the day gave way to moderated short-covering ahead of theweekend. That left the August contract above the critical $2.00level, closing up 8.3 cents at $2.031.

A New York broker pointed to the rising open interest figure thelast few days as evidence there has been fresh selling on the movedown this week. “Anytime you see such a substantial move in onedirection, you have to be wary of the whipsaw effect on Friday,” hesaid.

An analyst feels the market is experiencing a technical bounceamid the larger scale downtrend. “This correction looks as if itcould last through the August settlement on Wednesday, however theshoulder months are going to have a tough time following August’slead. The mentality in the market right now is that September,October, and November are guilty [of lower prices] until proveninnocent.”

©Copyright 1998 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press,Inc.