Bears

After a brief uptick during the Wednesday night Access tradingsession, natural gas futures continued lower yesterday at the NewYork Mercantile Exchange and settled below key support levels. Julyfinished at $2.285, after carving out a $2.27 low early Thursdaymorning. Estimated volume of 95,938 was almost double that ofMonday and Tuesday.

Amid a swirl of pre-AGA storage speculation, the futures marketcontinued lower Wednesday, touching its lowest level so far thismonth. After a lower opening, the July contract quickly mapped outits high trade of the day at $2.36, before slipping 4 cents tofinish at $2.327. Estimated volume of 65,584 injected some lifeinto the market, following sub-45,000 trading sessions Monday andTuesday.

For the third session in a row, natural gas futures see-sawed toeither side of unchanged yesterday as traders eschewed eitherbuying or selling the market outside of its recent trading range.After etching out a $2.34 low Tuesday morning, speculative buyingwas once again seen trying to push the July contract throughresistance at $2.40. But resistance held and the contract sank backto finish at $2.367, a 0.5-cent decline on the day.

After a hectic trading week that saw the June contract tradewithin a choppy, 15-cent range, traders tiptoed through Friday’snatural gas session. A late rally and retreat right before theclose of trading was the only real excitement in an otherwisefeatureless trading landscape. The June contract finished at$2.288, up 0.6 cents for the day and 1.5 cents for the week.

Natural gas futures continued lower yesterday and were able tobreak through a key support level. The June contract finished 4.5cents lower at $2.191 after mapping out a $2.17 low for the day.

After rallying more than 15 cent from last weeks lows, naturalgas futures took a breather Wednesday, trading sideways within atight 4.5-cent range. The June contract settled unchanged for theday at $2.359.

After pushing the futures market lower into the weekend, thebears were at it again early yesterday as they ushered the Maycontract to its lowest level since last Wednesday. But sellingquickly dissipated, leaving the market exposed to unchecked buying.The May contract finished up 4.5 cents at $2.169 after notching a$2.18 high.

Too little, too late was the apt expression for the futuresmarket yesterday, which continued lower despite what someconsidered to be the most constructive fundamentals yet thiswinter. And so the April contract took a page out of the Marchcontract’s playbook, slipping 3.8 cents to $1.659 amid a tight,6-cent trading range. Estimated volume was high for the usuallyquiet day-after expiration with 65,714 contracts changing hands.

Natural gas prices continued in their march of monotonyyesterday, as neither buyers nor sellers were able to tip the scalein their favor. Flatness ruled as a result, with many pricinglocations unchanged.