Tuesday, January 24
Another week, another bearish NYMEX natural gas futures commentary as the market gave up another $0.327, that’s 12% for those of you keeping track. After the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday, prices gapped lower to start the week, breezing through what seemed like a long term support trend line in the low $2.60’s area. The trade at $2.587 represented the high price of the week and as things got rolling Tuesday morning the prices dropped quickly to temporary support near $2.44. The market stayed in this $2.40 to $2.44 area until the EIA storage report on Thursday morning. The 87 bcf withdrawn from storage was pretty near expectations and prices responded with a small blip up but then the bears took over and drove prices down again, this time not stopping until prices cracked $2.30. The low price of the week at $2.283 traded overnight coming into Friday and after recovering a little bit the market ended the week at $2.343. All I can say is “Yikes!” Next winter’s strip gave up over $0.25 to end at $3.27. The new week starts with some commentary from Chesapeake that they plan to curtail some production at these price levels and whether due to this or some other issues, natural gas is back pushing the $2.50 area. The gap in prices near $2.60 still remains so we may see some determined bulls trying to fill that gap. Stay tuned, the fun just keeps on coming!
Posted by:Nicole Stika