Values

October futures values plunged on Wednesday as the newly minted front-month contract continued to approach the lows for the down move carved out by the preceding month. The October contract ended up closing Wednesday’s regular session at $2.715, down 10.6 cents from Tuesday’s finish.

A “supportive” 75 Bcf natural gas storage build teamed with a small uptick in crude futures values to halt the August natural gas futures down-day streak at seven as the contract picked up 5.5 cents Thursday to close at $3.408.

July natural gas futures values declined for the fifth consecutive session on Wednesday, but some traders are expecting a late round of short-covering to take place ahead of the contract’s expiration on Friday. The prompt month dropped 11.8 cents Wednesday to finish at $3.761, while August crude shaved off 57 cents to close at $68.67/bbl.

Continuing its little streak of recent weakness, July natural gas futures followed crude values lower on Monday, piercing the psychological $4 price level before closing at $3.933, down 9.9 cents from Friday’s finish.

Even with July crude futures continuing to explode higher, June natural gas futures values probed the downside in morning trade before limping higher to close at $3.970 Wednesday, up 5.6 cents from Tuesday’s finish.

Led lower for much of Monday’s regular session by weakness in crude futures prices, June natural gas futures values rebounded in the afternoon following a rally in the June crude contract. Front-month natural gas ended up closing Monday at $4.302, down less than a penny on the day, while prompt-month crude finished the session at $58.50/bbl, down a mere 13 cents.

Although a news service reported that a rupture in Indiana on the Panhandle Eastern natural gas pipeline was a factor in lifting natural gas futures values Wednesday morning, the pipeline said it was able to keep shipper nominations whole.

June natural gas futures values knee-jerked lower Thursday morning after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that 82 Bcf was injected into underground storage for the week ended April 24. However, the drop lower proved to be temporary as the prompt-month contract quickly rebounded later in the morning to trade at pre-report price levels before closing out the regular session at $3.373, down 3 cents from Wednesday’s close.

Natural gas futures bulls are finding that they just can’t catch a break as values continue to plumb new lows for the move. The April contract subtracted more than a dime on Wednesday as bearish projections for Thursday’s storage report meshed with a bearish 2009 Atlantic hurricane forecast from AccuWeather.com.