Fresh off Wednesday’s advance the futures market looked poisedto continue higher Thursday as early buying prompted the market upat the open. However, a 25-cent gain in two days was more than eventhe greediest of bulls could handle, and the market reacted bytrending down. That left the November contract with a 1.9 cent lossto settle at $2.414 at the final bell.

Susannah Hardesty, president of Energy Research & Trading,points to speculative fund buying this week as a contributingfactor to the advances. Hardesty says the $2.53 high Thursdaymorning was the first peak of the fall high. “This should be theleast significant of the 2 to 3 peaks of the fall high. From here,prices should make a downside correction, this month, with[November] projected to drop down to $2.25-10,” she wrote in herNatural Gas Weekly Report.

But the Pegasus Econometric Group of New York thinks the AGAreport has given the market the green light. “The smaller thanexpected 41 Bcf in storage refills for last week has the potentialto kick-off another major up-leg to natural gas futures prices,drawing fresh buying from old bulls who liquidated positions intothe October expiration.”

In daily technicals November finds support at the bottom of thechart gap to $2.35. Resistance is clustered at previous highs of$2.53, $2.55, and $2.57, a chartist said.

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