Overnight

Despite trading within a slim 14-cent range on Monday, the day’s market direction was already labeled as ‘lower’ following a 34.5-cent decline in Sunday’s overnight Access trade session. After opening at $6.840 Monday, July natural gas put in a low of $6.790 and a high of $6.930 before closing at $6.893, down 29.2 cents from Friday’s close.

After gapping lower in the overnight Nymex Access trading session, July natural gas opened Wednesday’s regular session at $6.150 and explored lower depths from there as traders absorbed the fact that summer heat is making false starts in a number of regions across the country. The prompt month broke below the psychological $6 level in early trading and bounced on either side of the number before recording a low of $5.940 and settling at $5.974, down 41.1 cents on the day. That brings the week’s losses so far to 64.9 cents.

With the near-term weather outlook pumping some life into the bulls’ case in Sunday’s overnight Access session and again on Monday morning, April natural gas futures on Monday ended up recording a high of $7.090 before settling at $7.007, up 36.1 cents on the day. The day’s close marked the first time since Feb. 24 that a prompt-month settled north of $7.

After trading significantly higher in the overnight Access session, March natural gas began regular trading on Friday at $7.330. However, bearish fundamentals and concerns about the validity of cold weather forecasts allowed the prompt month to come off during the pre-holiday shortened trading session, leaving March to close at $7.182, up 4.8 cents on the day, but down 13.4 cents from the previous Friday.

After trading lower in the overnight Access session, February natural gas futures opened Tuesday at $8.470, which turned out to be the contract’s low on the day as short-covering came in to push the prompt month higher. After hitting a high of $8.940 late in the session, February natural gas ended up settling at $8.682, up 10.8 cents for the day.

February natural gas futures worked lower in the overnight Access trading session to open at $10.285 and continued the down move in Wednesday’s regular session. The contract reached a low of $10.030, technically erasing the original Hurricane Katrina gap on the perpetual chart from Aug. 26 to Aug. 29, which spanned $10.075 to $10.650. February natural gas staged a small rebound in the afternoon to settle at $10.197, down 42.9 cents on the day.

Natural gas futures moved higher Wednesday following strength in Tuesday’s overnight Access trading session on continued cold in the Midwest and East. Traders are looking at Thursday morning’s natural gas storage report for the week ended Dec. 2 for their next cue. January natural gas on Wednesday ended up settling at $13.700, up 21.1 cents on the day.

With strength in Sunday’s overnight Access trade session prompted by forecasts for midweek cold, natural gas futures observers were expecting more of the same on Monday. However, after the December contract notched a high of $11.90 in morning trade, it plummeted just before 11 a.m. EST to carve out an $11.37 low before settling at $11.607, down 10.5 cents on the day.

Giving futures market bulls quite a fright on Halloween, December natural gas took out support in the $12.68-70 area in Sunday’s overnight Access trading session and kept the downward pressure in place during Monday’s regular session. December ended up settling at $12.205, down 85 cents from Friday’s close. Prompt-month futures haven’t settled this low since Sept. 16, when October natural gas closed at $11.144.