Twos

After spending the first two weeks of July in a mini uptrend, natural gas futures broke beneath major support last week, as traders continued to factor in the blistering pace of storage refills and normal- to below-normal temperatures. The August contract was hit with heavy selling Monday, and then again Wednesday through Thursday, pressuring prices to new 14-month lows and dashing bulls’ hopes that a bottom had been achieved. August moved mostly sideways on Friday to close at $2.955, up a modest 1.6-cent for the day but down a whopping 29.5 for the week.