Broke

Natural gas bulls looking ahead to next year are a little like Goldilocks after she broke into that house: they have three bears to deal with, or rather “bearish factors,” as energy analyst Stephen Smith calls them.

Four major competitors of BP plc broke ranks with the embattled oil giant last Tuesday — telling a House subcommittee that they would have drilled differently the deepwater well that has been spewing oil in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) for nearly two months.

The four major competitors of BP plc broke ranks Tuesday — telling a House subcommittee that they would have drilled differently the deepwater well that has been spewing oil in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) for nearly two months.

Front-month natural gas futures on Monday broke below psychological support at $5 for the first time since early December as traders see the winter season ticking to a close.

Front-month natural gas futures on Monday broke below psychological support at $5 for the first time since early December as traders see the winter season ticking to a close.

October natural gas futures broke down into the heart of a major support band Thursday morning after the industry received word from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) that a hardy 65 Bcf was injected into underground storage for the week ending Aug. 28. The prompt-month contract dipped into the $2.50s in early trade Thursday and never recovered, closing at $2.508, down 20.7 cents from Wednesday’s regular session close.

Coming off last week’s 43.4-cent decline, which broke the psychological $3 support line and notched a seven-year low, September natural gas futures underwent a little bit of a corrective action on Monday as the prompt-month contract regained 11.9 cents to close out the regular session at $2.923.

The cash market broke out of its trading pattern rut earlier this week to some degree Wednesday. There were still several flat to about a dime higher quotes in the Midcontinent, Rockies and a few other western locations, but not only were the gains much fewer than on Monday and Tuesday but also much smaller. Prices continued to soften at all points in the East outside the Midcontinent.

Ending another wild week of trading that had two days of prices moving lower and two days of prices moving higher, November natural gas futures on Friday broke the tie in favor of the bears as the front-month contract closed at $7.358, down 12.3 cents on the day and 27 cents lower than the previous week’s finish.