futures

After teeter-tottering above and below the $7 mark for the past two sessions, May natural gas futures on Friday once again broke beneath the psychological level to settle at $6.997, down 7.2 cents on the day and 24.5 cents lower for the week.

The cash market got mugged Friday as little weather-related load, a bearish storage report, prior-day energy futures weakness and lower weekend demand from industrial end-users ganged up on prices. Double-digit losses were unusually consistent across all geographic market areas, ranging from about 20 cents to about 35 cents.

As sources had expected, the cash market succumbed to weak weather fundamentals and dwindling energy futures support Tuesday by staging a major retreat. Virtually all points saw double-digit declines ranging from about 15 cents to half a dollar or so

Putting in a second “weak” trading day that had some market experts rumbling about an established top, May natural gas futures on Tuesday traveled no higher than $7.585 before settling at $7.572, down 2.2 cents on the session.

With May natural gas futures prices comfortably trading above $7/MMBtu, some analysts and investment houses are revising some of their projections for the energy industry in 2005. Last week, analysts with Merrill Lynch released their latest commentary, in which they revised commodity price estimates as well as exploration and production (E&P) company earnings estimates.

With May natural gas futures prices comfortably trading above $7/MMBtu, some analyst and investment houses are revising some of their projections for the energy industry in 2005. On Tuesday, analysts with Merrill Lynch released their latest commentary, in which they revised commodity price estimates as well as exploration and production (E&P) company earnings estimates.

The natural gas futures market continued lower Monday as sellers continued to apply pressure to a market weakened by last Thursday’s smaller-than-expected, 89 Bcf storage withdrawal. Though the selling was not especially well organized, it was effective and produced a fractionally sub-$7 settlement for the prompt contract on its penultimate trading session. April, which expires at 2:30 p.m. ET Tuesday, closed Monday at $6.999, down 6.3 cents on the day.

Trying to expand upon the upward momentum from Tuesday, March natural gas futures explored higher Wednesday morning. However, after bumping up against the $6.26 level, the prompt month retreated, locating support at $6.10 before settling at $6.165, relatively unchanged from Tuesday.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed five federal civil injunctions last week against 15 former natural gas traders and energy company Concord Energy LLC for reporting fake natural gas trading information to index publishers in an attempt to manipulate gas prices. The CFTC said the violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) could draw penalties of up to $120,000, or triple the monetary gain, per offense.