Groped

Without clear leadership from either weather demand or technical buying, the natural gas futures market groped lower Friday as traders squared their books ahead of the weekend. After opening slightly off Thursday’s $5.718 close, the October contract was held to a relatively tight $5.61-78 trading range with neither bull nor bear willing to take the leadership role. The prompt month closed at $5.675, down 4.3 cents for the day and 20.2 cents for the week.