Sideways

Following Thursday’s 17-cent price slide, the natural gas futures market was quiet Friday as traders elected to play it safe ahead of the weekend. Bears scored early Friday by carving out a new nine-month low. However, short-covering ensued and succeeded in recouping the day’s losses. The October contract was held to a tight 9.5-cent range Friday, all of which was etched in the first 40 minutes of trading. It closed at $4.483, up a modest 1.2 cents for the session.

With little in the way of fresh fundamental information Friday, the natural gas futures market chopped sideways within a narrow 8.5-cent trading range. Nearly equal amounts of bargain buying and fund selling were seen in the August contract, which followed Thursday’s impressive bounce with a more subdued, 2.8-cent decline to finish the week at $5.022. At 49,295, estimated volume was evidence of the lackluster trading Friday.

With little fresh news on which to trade, natural gas futures chopped sideways Friday in light pre-weekend book squaring. Bears were content that Thursday’s gains did not carry over into Friday’s trading. Bulls, meanwhile, rested on their 47-cent gain for the week. May finished at $5.411, down a trifling 0.8 cents for the session.

After opening unchanged and checking sideways for the first hour of trading Friday, natural gas futures rocketed higher between 11 a.m and 12:40 p.m. EST as sellers backed away from the market and buyers became more aggressive.

March futures added to Wednesday’s late gains on some technical short-covering but traded sideways most of the day Thursday, ending up 4.9 cents to $2.15 with a daily high of $2.16 and a low of $2.085. Several observers said if the contract can trade above $2.165 and build a little upward momentum, it might drive more shorts to cover and produce a small rally. But few are willing to bet the farm on that given the warm weather and enormous storage surplus.

With little in the way of fresh fundamental or technical impetus, natural gas futures drifted sideways and lower Tuesday as traders elected to wait for a clearer supply-demand picture to develop. The September contract remained within an extremely tight 5.5-cent range, well beneath Monday’s gap lower open, but safely above support in the $3.03-10 area. At the closing bell, September was 1.7 cents weaker at $3.17.

In a session notably void of fresh fundamental or technical news, natural gas futures moved sideways yesterday as many traders opted to wait until the beginning of the three-day settlement period and the release of storage figures today before placing their orders. At $2.97 the August contract finished 0.8 cents lower on the day and just about in the middle of its 3-day $2.915-$3.01, trading range. Volume was relatively weak with just 61,764 contracts changing hands.

With little in the way of fresh fundamental news, natural gas futures moved sideways Friday, as traders held the market to an extremely tight, six-cent trading range. A modest downtick at the closing bell was enough to pressure prices below unchanged on the day. The July contract finished at $3.742, down a half-cent for the session and 23.7 cents lower for the week. Since becoming the prompt month nearly four weeks ago, July is down 6.8 cents after trading as low as $3.67 (May 30) and as high as $4.44 (June 12).

After a briefly checking below support at $4.00 and then back up into the low $4.10s, natural gas futures limped lazily sideways for much of the session Thursday as trade buying met almost equally with fund and local selling. At the closing bell the July contract was 7.4 cents lower for the session at $4.038. Estimated volume was relatively light, with only 67,994 contracts changing hands.