The June Nymex contract made its debut as the spot month byslipping 1.3 cents to settle $2.298 on Wednesday. Volume wasmoderate, with an estimated 40,133 contracts changing hands.

The real market activity began during last night’s Accesssession, after the AGA released its weekly storage survey. Thelatest report estimates that for the week ended Friday, April 24,working gas in storage increased by 64 Bcf. “Today saw a muchlarger AGA injection estimate than the market was prepared for,” atrader told GPI. “Estimates ranged in the 20-45 area with fewpeople expecting a larger than 50 injection. 25 Bcf was last year’srefill so we have added to the year on year surplus.” The reportleaves that surplus at 345 Bcf versus this time last year.

One Southwest cash market trader noted prices in that regionstarted tailing off after the release of the storage report, soperhaps this will serve as a precursor to futures trading today. Asone source reminded, “the May contract got killed last week whenthe AGA report was in the 50s, so maybe we’ll see a similar effectsince this report is in the 60s,” he said.

So far, he may be right. June was down 2.7 cents to $2.271 as of6:30 EDT last night, and the contract is getting pretty close tochallenging major support in the $2.22-24 area. If June is able tobreak below that level, look for secondary support at $2.16, atechnician advised.

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