Regular

Natural gas futures turned in a fairly calm regular session on Wednesday as at least one trader hypothesized that the market was sidetracked by the much-publicized Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) hearing on position limits in the energy futures arena. The prompt-month contract closed Wednesday at $4.042, up 4.1 cents from Tuesday’s finish.

August natural gas wasted no time in making its mark Monday on the futures market in its first regular session action as the front-month contract, shedding 16.1 cents to close at $3.944 as the fear premium associated with a possible storm in the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend fully dissipated.

Aided by a developing storm system in the tropics, July natural gas futures pushed higher for much of Friday’s regular session. The expiring contract touched the psychological $4 level just prior to going off the board at $3.949, up 10.5 cents from Thursday’s finish but 8.3 cents lower than the previous week’s close. The August contract gained 11.6 cents to $4.105 on Friday.

After seeing June futures gain 35.2 cents during the previous two regular trading sessions, bullish natural gas traders were forced to cool their heels on Tuesday as the contract ended up dropping 11 cents to close at $3.615.

Natural gas futures traders chose to play it close to the vest during the June contract’s first regular session action as the prompt-month contract, possibly opting to wait for fresh storage news Thursday morning before making their next move. Futures closed Wednesday at $3.403, down 3.7 cents from Tuesday’s finish.

After putting in a new low for the move of $3.155 in morning trade, May natural gas futures ended up creeping higher from there for the remainder of Monday’s regular session before closing at $3.253, down 4.4 cents from Friday’s finish. Despite the fact that there is no bullish case anywhere to be found, traders and analysts warned that anything can happen Tuesday, which marks the May contract’s expiration.

With no signs of fresh bullish or bearish information, short-covering ahead of the weekend won the day Friday as May natural gas futures climbed for much of the regular session to close at $3.729, up 13 cents from Thursday and 11.9 cents higher than the previous week’s finish.

Traders were still digesting last week’s late weakness as May natural gas futures in their first front-month regular session action traded in a tight range Monday before closing at $3.739, up less than a cent from Friday’s finish.

April natural gas futures in its first regular session action as the front-month contract on Thursday digested the morning news that 101 Bcf was withdrawn from underground storage last week with little more than a blip on the charts. Prompt-month futures failed to drop below the psychological $4 price level and ended up closing at $4.077, up 4.8 cents from Wednesday’s close.