Mercantile

Front-month natural gas futures on Monday broke below psychological support at $5 for the first time since early December as traders see the winter season ticking to a close.

Front-month natural gas futures on Monday broke below psychological support at $5 for the first time since early December as traders see the winter season ticking to a close.

Goldman Sachs last week raised its 2010 gas production forecast and lowered its New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) price forecast for the year to $6/MMBtu from $7.30/MMBtu. The firm also introduced a 2011 Nymex forecast of $6.50/MMBtu.

Goldman Sachs on Thursday raised its 2010 gas production forecast and lowered its New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) price forecast for the year to $6/MMBtu from $7.30/MMBtu. The firm also introduced a 2011 Nymex forecast of $6.50/MMBtu.

The New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) Monday said it was backing off earlier commitments to implement hard position limits for certain financially settled natural gas contracts from the end of September, noting that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is delaying implementation of position limits on comparable contracts under its rulemaking on Exempt Commercial Markets (ECM).

Natural gas futures gave up almost all of Tuesday’s gains and settled stoutly lower Wednesday in active trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The floor was abuzz with talk of the August contract moving sharply lower, and one set of estimates surfaced that put Thursday’s expected storage addition ahead of long-term averages.

A price rally this year in the calendar 2010 (Cal10) New York Mercantile Exchange gas futures strip is the biggest threat to 2010 spot price recovery as stronger futures would accommodate more hedging and trigger a stronger drilling response among producers, analysts at Barclays Capital said last Tuesday.

Some traders are crying foul with regards to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s (CME) electronic Globex trading system following Thursday morning’s knee-jerk spike in front-month natural gas futures of nearly 75 cents. Some traders complained that their orders were not filled following the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) storage report release at 10:30 a.m. EDT, which sparked the run-up in prices. The trading exchange said Friday that no glitches were reported on the system.

Some traders are crying foul with regards to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s (CME) electronic Globex trading system following last Thursday morning’s knee-jerk spike in front-month natural gas futures of nearly 75 cents. Some traders complained that their orders were not filled following the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) storage report release at 10:30 a.m. EDT, which sparked the run-up in prices. The trading exchange said Friday that no glitches were reported on the system.