Knee

After venturing higher in early morning trade on Thursday, the January natural gas futures contract knee-jerked lower following the news from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) that 23 Bcf was withdrawn from underground storage for the week ending Nov. 26. However, the bearish sentiment from the report proved to be no match for the eastern freeze, which pushed the front-month contract higher to close at $4.343, up 7.4 cents from Wednesday’s regular session close.

September natural gas futures knee-jerked lower in Thursday morning trading following the news that an on-target 37 Bcf was injected into underground storage for the week ending Aug. 6. The prompt-month contract recorded a low of $4.264 before closing out the day at $4.296, down 3 cents from Wednesday’s close.

The July natural gas futures contract enjoyed a bit of a rally in morning trading before knee-jerking lower following the news that 99 Bcf was injected into underground storage for the week ending June 4. After one more run higher, the prompt-month contract ended up closing out the regular session at $4.647, down 3 cents from Wednesday’s finish.

November natural gas futures knee-jerked lower Thursday morning following news that 69 Bcf had been injected into underground storage for the week ending Oct. 2. However, the action was short-lived as the prompt-month contract immediately resumed its assault on the psychological $5 resistance level.

Natural gas futures knee-jerked higher Thursday morning temporarily after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported the first nontriple-digit storage build in six weeks. Thursday proved to be a streak-breaker in more than one way as the July contract ended up closing 8.3 cents higher at $3.844, halting the consecutive down-day trend at five.

June natural gas futures values knee-jerked lower Thursday morning after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that 82 Bcf was injected into underground storage for the week ended April 24. However, the drop lower proved to be temporary as the prompt-month contract quickly rebounded later in the morning to trade at pre-report price levels before closing out the regular session at $3.373, down 3 cents from Wednesday’s close.

Despite the release of an industry-expected 50 Bcf storage injection report Thursday morning for the week ended Aug. 8, natural gas futures knee-jerked lower. The September contract crashed below established support at $8.200 and tested the psychological $8 level before closing out Thursday’s regular session at $8.136, down 32 cents from Wednesday.

Even though January natural gas futures knee-jerked higher above the psychological $9 level following the 32 Bcf storage withdrawal report Thursday morning, the contract ultimately put in a low of $8.700 before closing at $8.844, down 2.7 cents on the day.

After dropping a dime in a knee-jerk reaction to slightly bearish storage data (42 Bcf injection) released at 10:30 a.m. EDT, natural gas futures chopped sideways for the rest of the session Thursday as traders groped for fair value in a market that has witnessed a 58-cent trading range since Oct. 1. As it turned out, nothing was settled, with about half the traders, brokers and analysts surveyed by NGI yesterday expecting higher prices Friday and half looking for more weakness. The November contract closed at $3.828, down 9 cents for the session and just above support at $3.795.