Streaked

Completing a week of wild roller-coaster ups and downs before basically returning to where it had begun the week, the May natural gas futures contract on Friday streaked higher to close the day at $4.070, up 16.1 cents from Thursday’s close but 1.6 cents less than the previous week’s finish.

Taking momentum from Monday’s session, August natural gas streaked higher in Tuesday morning trading to record a high of $13.610. Mimicking Monday’s 15.5-cent gain, the prompt-month contract added a similar 15.2 cents Tuesday to finish the regular session at $13.505.

Natural gas futures streaked higher again on Wednesday with more than firm support from the neighboring crude futures market. June natural gas reached a high of $11.683 before closing out the regular session at $11.640, up 27.5 cents from Tuesday’s close.