Author: Willis Bennett

In my absence, prices decided to test the support at the Feb lows and break below it briefly. There have been some ugly monthly ranges traded since prompt gas turned down last August, the chart for calendar March is as ugly as any. After a technically positive calendar February prompt April promptly traded through the previous month’s high on March’s first trading day then before its tenure was over plunged through its low creating the first “outside” March since 1998 and the first ever to reverse to the downside (in ’98 the prompt first traded through the Feb low before rallying through and closing above the Feb high). The continuation monthly bar could have only been uglier if the close had been below the Feb low which owing to May’s premium over expired April and Friday’s only higher daily close of this week,, it wasn’t. The monthly chart of May gas did achieve that benchmark and is even uglier as it closed lower for the week, month, and quarter below its February low.

As patently bearish as the market seems, and expecting the consensus of technical indicators had weakened further from the prior week’s negative to neutral bias “ to outright negative, close examination indicated that was not the case. Almost none of those indicators confirmed the lower price low which either means they are out of step with reality and need time to catch up although recent price ranges have been relatively modest so that should not be the case, or the subsurface dynamics are diverging from the persistent price weakness. For example, last week average daily volume accelerated as April fell toward a new low weekly close and as has become the custom closed below the previous week’s low. Market internals…volume and open interest, which also continued to increase as price fell, strengthened the technical presumption that April would be offered lower before going off the board.

A lower weekly close and closing the week near the lows– clearly suggests that the market should head lower this week. Still trying to establish whether this market is going to tests the lows of last month, or does it find the buying to set a higher low and continue the thesis that a base is building for the Q2 run. While the continuation one – year strip did not record a lower daily or weekly close ($3.088 vs $3.060) the same could not be said for the summer ’23 and winter ’23 – ’24 both of which closed at a new weekly low. That weakness in deferred contracts (which had held up somewhat better than the nearby contracts) suggests a reduction of intermediate/long – term participant expectations and likely an increase in already substantial speculative short positioning. This actions suggests that speculative shorts are exposed to another and perhaps more significant event than occurred during the eight day period ending 03/03 (when prompt gas closed higher for seven of eight days while rallying from $1.967 to $3.027). Notwithstanding that potential expectation, the acceleration of weakness in the strips with the new low closes, indicate that at least for the near – term the entire maturity curve is likely to be vulnerable to the downside. New low weekly closes for prompt gas and the continuation strip will confirm the indication from the deferred that, at a minimum, the gas market intends to test the February low.

In recent weeks volume has on balance declined during rallies, increased when price fell. This past week average daily volume fell along with price and was only higher one day than the corresponding day the previous week. New contracts continued to be added to total open interest which has increased in all but two weeks since mid – December (both small declines). This week with prompt gas only $.029 lower from Thursday to Thursday (open interest lag one day) a modest 1,345 contracts were added. This is the smallest addition of any of those weeks. Both volume and open interest entered the past week with a price negative bias but earned an upgrade to neutral.

Prices tested and gave up gains as prices tested the moving Avg on the week before. As long as these moving averages are declining, they will provide inviting, low risk sell opportunities, just as they provided similar opportunities during the uptrend last year. Given the dramatic reaction to last week’s first approach I’d guess it will take an extended period of consolidation allowing time for the slope of the declining resistance to lessen and for the construction of a base sufficient to support more than a one or two week rally (higher closes for the last two weeks were the first consecutive higher weekly closes since the first two Fridays of December) toward a traditional spring/summer high…and there is still that requirement that prompt gas find support at a higher low.

Market internals faded to neutral last week after showing at least tepid support for a price recovery in mid/late February. This week average daily volume increased as prompt gas fell and open interest resumed adding contracts after a one week decline (the 13th increase in 14 weeks). A price negative bias was added to both. Volume declined minimally from the previous week.