Natural gas futures fell sharply in abbreviated pre-holiday trading Friday as technical selling apparently outweighed concerns over the development of several tropical systems. The October contract finished its second session as prompt month on a negative tone, dropping 21.3 cents to close at $4.731.
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Late Sell-Off Trims Day’s Gains; Bears In Control
Similar to the price action in Friday’s abbreviated trading session, natural gas futures failed to hold onto morning advances Monday and ultimately closed in the lower half of the contract’s daily trading range. The only real difference between the two sessions was the net change for the day, with Monday’s modest, 3.5-cent advance and $4.883 settle contrasting Friday’s 4.3-cent decline. Volume was weak again Monday with an estimated 40,049 contracts changing hands.
Futures Tick Higher as Traders are Cautious Ahead of Long Weekend
Stemming a two-day, 22-cent price erosion, natural gas futures turned modestly higher in an abbreviated pre-holiday weekend session Friday, as profit taking gave way to a steady stream of end-user buying. The March contract looked poised to hit the $2.12 low notched last Monday, but after sellers ran out of gas early Friday the way was paved for a positive close. At 1 p.m. Friday the March contract settled 2 cents higher for the day and 1.5 cents higher for the week at $2.206.
Pre-Holiday Sell-Off Brings Bears Out of Hibernation
With little in the way of fresh fundamental news, natural gasfutures slipped lower in a holiday-abbreviated session last Fridayas traders took profits following a six-day, $2.30-cent pricerally.
Reversing Early Losses, Bulls Make it Four in a Row
It was short but sweet for bulls in Wednesday’sholiday-abbreviated trading session as gas futures rebounded froman early and brief foray into negative territory to notch its 15thgain in 17 trading sessions. Adding to a $2.00-plus price spike offlows etched Oct. 31, December clawed 16.9 cents higher Wednesday toclose at $6.577. Meanwhile January finished up 15.2 cents at $6.584after posting a new all-time commodity high at $6.70.
Futures Tumble in Choppy Trade
Even an abbreviated pre-holiday trading session at the New YorkMercantile Exchange gave traders no rest last Friday as the marketclawed its way higher from a “disappointing” open only to reverseright back down at the close. When all the dust had settled and theorders were tabulated, the March contract was off 3.4 cents for theday at $2.633.
January Unable to Buck Downtrend
After spiraling down in the last 30 minutes of last Thursday’sabbreviated trading session, the spot January contract gapped lowerand traded in a tight 6-cent trading range Monday as traderscontinued to test the downside of the market. The nearby cashmarket, which was trading 5-10 cents lower on many pipes, had anundeniable affect when the futures market opened at 10 AM EST,traders said. Estimated volume was robust, with 86,466 contractschanging hands.
Futures Drop in Christmas Eve ‘Surprise’
The futures market gave the impression it would finish the weekon a boring note, and for nearly the entire abbreviated tradingsession last Thursday it did just that-trading within a tighttwo-cent range. But that was before bears gave the market a littlepre-Christmas surprise by selling the market into the final bell.The prompt January contract finished 2.5 cents lower at $1.881.Estimated volume was a paltry 24,112 contracts.
Westcoast Challenges BC’s Southern Crossing
Westcoast Energy Inc. last week challenged BC Gas’ request for an abbreviated approval process for the Southern Crossing pipeline proposal and called for a full public review of the re-filed proposal by BC Gas to build a $350 million pipeline across Southern British Columbia. Westcoast maintains the Southern Crossing project is too expensive and that there are other alternatives.