Listlessly

Despite calls for an expiration-day short-covering rally, natural gas futures traded listlessly sideways Tuesday, evidence that most traders had already squared their August books. With that the August contract limped off the board at $4.693, down 0.7 cents for the session, 60 cents less than July’s settlement and a whopping 72 cents below where it was when it became prompt contract a month ago. At 80,239, estimated volume was extremely low for an expiration day.