Slip

The futures market continued to trade sideways to finish out theweek on Friday despite the large bearish sentiment, underpinned byfundamentals, that continues to dominant the market. The Septembercontract may have slipped only slightly to settle at $1.947, but itwas not for a lack of trying. Friday produced very choppy tradingthat had the prompt month bouncing between the $1.90 and $2.00.

Nymex futures once again were unable to buck the downtrend andcontinued to slip lower yesterday in quiet trade. The July Nymexcontract opened below $2 before breaking through long-term supportat $1.97 only to claw its way back up near the close. July settledat $1.976, down 5.1 cents for the day. In doing so, July posted thelowest level of any prompt contract since January.

The June Nymex contract showed what hefty storage activity cando to the market by falling 7.7 cents to settle Thursday at $2.221The only good news for bulls is that the contract managed torebound after briefly falling below major support at the $2.160level. “The market has been wounded. People ignored the storagenumbers for too long, but they can’t ignore them anymore. The 345Bcf surplus is the largest we’ve had this year, and we’ve had fourstraight weeks where we’ve added to that surplus,” an analyst toldGPI.

The April Nymex contract once again failed to break above majorresistance at $2.19 on Tuesday, and as a result, the spot monthfinished the day down 3.2 cents to $2.137. Total estimated volumecame in at 34,371.

The April Nymex contract slipped 1.3 cents to $2.228 onWednesday, as the near month contract continues to be hounded bytight trading ranges. April could move no higher than $2.245 and nolower than $2.210 yesterday.