Technical

With little in the way of fresh fundamental or technicalimpetuous, natural gas futures were quiet in an abbreviatedpre-holiday trading session Friday, giving traders a moment tofocus on the next price move. Just about dead center of its$5.45-67 trading range, the March contract’s $5.568 close was 2.6cents lower for the session and 64.2 cents lower for the week.

Amid a devastating combination of a forecast calling forwarming temperatures and technical weakness, the natural gasfutures market started the year with a crash Tuesday, as tradersliquidated their long positions en masse. The price impact was feltimmediately as February prices tumbled below $9.00 in overnightAccess trading Monday night.

With little in the way of fresh fundamental or technical news,natural gas futures limped mostly sideways yesterday as bargainbuying stemmed an early test of support. That enabled the Februarycontract to trim losses throughout the afternoon, closing 2.3 centslower on the session at $9.263

Fueled by moderating weather forecasts and following Monday’s21-cent decline, natural gas futures tumbled lower in a classicexpiration-day long liquidation Tuesday, as traders rolled theirprompt month positions into back months. After a back-breakingsell-off in the last five minutes of trading Monday, the Decembercontract gapped lower at the open and tumbled 35.2 cents to itsfinal resting place at $6.016 yesterday.

With little in the way of fresh news on either the fundamentalor technical front, natural gas futures were left to limp lazilysideways Friday within a fairly tight 14.5-cent range. At theclosing bell, the December contract finished right about in themiddle, narrowly eking out at 1.1-cent gain to finish at $5.456.Activity was light as some traders observed the Veteran’s Dayholiday.

Following on the heels of a two-day, 44-cent price rally,natural gas futures continued higher as bullish technical andfundamental clues put traders in the buying mode early yesterday.However, after peaking at $4.29 shortly after 11:00 p.m (EST), theSeptember contract chopped lower throughout the afternoon to settleat $4.25.

With little in the way of fresh news on either the technical orfundamental front, natural gas prices took the path of leastresistance yesterday, slipping lower but settling above key supportat $3.80. After plumbing its lowest point in two months at $3.79shortly after 2 p.m. (EST), the August contract finished stronglyto settle at $3.86, down 2.4 cents on the day.

Cabot LNG, the largest U.S. liquefied natural gas importer anddistributor in the Northeast, agreed yesterday to sell 100% of itsassets to Tractebel of Brussels, Belgium for $680 million. The dealwill give Tractebel the LNG terminal in Everett, MA, along with 10%interest in a liquefaction facility in Trinidad and Tobago and theLNG tanker, Matthew. The transaction is set to close by thebeginning of September.

The Pipeline Research Council International Inc. (PRCI) and itsstrategic technology partner, Houston-based Technical ToolboxesInc. (TTI), announced yesterday they plan to launchPipelineCentral.com, a neutral Internet marketplace that wouldenable suppliers to furnish services and equipment (i.e.compressors and smart pigs) more quickly to interstate natural gasand oil pipelines in the United States and overseas.