Marked

Coming off two days marked by sizable price swings and robustvolume, buyers and sellers were almost evenly matched Tuesdaymaking for a rare sub-5-cent price range. The prompt month closedthe day down 1.3 cents to settle at $1.952.

$2.43 continued to be a stubborn resistance level for the AugustNymex contract on Thursday, as yesterday marked the fourthconsecutive day the spot month failed to move above this key shortterm price objective. On the other hand, Thursday was also thefourth day in a row that August failed to move below key technicalsupport at $2.32. The inability for August to move significantly ineither direction helped lead the contract down 1.7 cents to settlethe day at $2.349.

Gas prices didn’t care that Monday marked the official start of1998’s Atlantic hurricane season. What did impress them wasblistering heat in the Gulf Coast producing states of Louisiana andTexas. With more gas than usual being kept at home for airconditioning load, the Midwest and Northeast market areas-thoughconsiderably cooler than Down South-had to pony up a few extracents in competition. The futures screen run-up contributed to thegeneral cash bullishness, sources said.

The May Nymex contract nudged 2.1 cents lower to $2.535 Mondayamid a session marked by a relatively light total estimated volumefigure of just over 30,000 contracts. “Many traders are waiting fordirection from the cash market, and since that hardly moved today,it makes sense futures hardly budged either,” an analyst told GPI.