Punctuated

The tail end of the uneventful 2009 Gulf of Mexico (GOM) hurricane season was punctuated last week by the threat of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Ida, which sent some offshore operators scurrying to evacuate crews and shut in production in the eastern GOM. However, Ida’s impact was short-lived and traders mostly yawned.

Punctuated by a 5-cent free-fall in the last five minutes of trading, natural gas futures slumped lower yesterday as traders priced yet-to-be-released storage data — guilty of being bearish, until proven innocent — into the market. With that the September contract concluded its penultimate trading day with a 12.9-cent loss to close at $2.415.

Punctuated by a gut-wrenching final 45 minutes in which the spotcontract plummeted, spiked and then fell again, natural gas futuresfinished on a strong note yesterday in a classic short-coveringrally.

Trading at the New York Mercantile Exchange for the month ofFebruary has featured tight but choppy ranges punctuated by smalldecreases when sellers slightly outnumbered the buyers in themarket. And yesterday’s expiration-day session was simply amicrocosm of that as the March contract was the focus of a fierce,and mostly balanced battle, which was ultimately decided by sellerslate in the day. The March contract concluded its reign as promptmonth with a 4.4-cent decline to settle at $1.666.