Feeding

Feeding off strength from Tuesday’s Access session gains, theMay contract was fast out of the chute Wednesday, quickly notchinga $2.08 shortly before noon. But for the fourth time in the lastfive trading days, resistance at the $2.07-09 level held andprofit-taking in the form of selling became the theme of theafternoon. The May contract finished at $2.024, just 1.1 cents morethan Tuesday’s close.

Feeding off late gains notched by the expiring April contractMonday, May kicked off its campaign as the spot month at Nymexyesterday by continuing higher in active trading. And whereas Aprilcontract made its mark in a late short squeeze, May was promptedhigher throughout the day by a steady stream of commercial andspeculative buying. Several sources also pointed to buy-stoporders, which were triggered as the market moved through the$1.93-95 range as a reason for the strength. May finished up 9.5cents at $1.978.

Feeding off strength from Wednesday’s minor advance, the futuresmarket seemed to pick up momentum yesterday. A stronger open gainedapproval from eager bulls, who bid the contract steadily upwardThursday morning. Then after an early afternoon sell-off wasthwarted, prices again pressed higher, but this time buying camefrom all market segments as locals, trade, and paper players joinedthe rally. The April contract finished up 7.6 cents at $1.835.

For about an hour yesterday it appeared as if the futures marketwas ready to break out of its recent rut. Feeding on emotiongathered in Monday’s active session, the April contract quicklymapped out a 7-cent trading range in only the first hour oftrading. But, that would be about all the market could handle andthe prompt month spent the rest of the session drifting aimlesslywithin that range. April finished down 0.5 cents to $1.696.

Feeding off positive momentum from Wednesday’s active tradingsession, natural gas futures trundled higher yesterday as tradersgauged the persistent issues of storage and weather. And while thatfollow-through was enough to boost the prompt January contract up7.4 cents to $2.064 for the day, 4 cents of that was notched in theWednesday night Access session, leaving some bulls to suggest thatyesterday’s movement was disappointing.