Range

Breaking its range of the last 12 sessions, February natural gas futures opened Thursday at $8 and worked itself even lower in anticipation of yet another bearish natural gas storage withdrawal report. Following almost no reaction to the 81 Bcf pull from storage, prompt-month natural gas pushed back above $8 to settle at $8.229, down 23.1 cents from Wednesday’s close.

After the January contract gapped 26.6 cents higher to open at $11.900 on Tuesday in its debut as the prompt month, the contract felt its way around, bouncing within a range from $11.670 to $12.150 before settling at $11.736, up 10.2 cents for the day.

November natural gas futures kept within a fairly small 31-cent range Friday as they seemed to hold onto some of the downward momentum from Thursday’s 80.8-cent drop. Ultimately, the prompt month settled at $13.226, down 14.9 cents from Thursday and 69.5 cents lower than the previous Friday’s close.

Mostly taking the day off following a busy week of trading, traders on Friday pushed August natural gas around within a slim 11-cent range before the contract settled at $7.384, up 8.4 cents from Thursday, but 46.5 cents lower than the previous Friday’s close.

Spot natural gas prices are expected to remain in the range of $6.50/Mcf to $7/Mcf through the summer despite the high level of gas in storage, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Short-Term Energy Outlook for June.

Spot natural gas prices are expected to remain in the range of $6.50/Mcf to $7/Mcf through the summer despite the high level of gas in storage, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Short-Term Energy Outlook for June.

Trading within a fairly thin range on Tuesday, July natural gas futures notched a high of $7.580 and a low of $7.435 before settling at $7.474, down 19.6 cents for the day. Natural gas futures appeared to be loosely following crude’s action during the session, where the petroleum contract seemed to dip, recover, then dip again.

With all of the attention focused on crude futures on Monday as it made a run at $60/bbl, July natural gas traded within a range from $7.50 to $7.80 before settling at $7.67, down 2 cents on the day.

Following strong bullish moves on Wednesday and Thursday, July natural gas futures on Friday kept the upward pressure on, but relaxed a bit range-wise, trading within a slim 11.5-cent corridor.