Category: Weekly Detail

Holiday Shortened Week – Brings Little News

Weekly Continuous

Due to an Easter celebrations — the Weekly and Daily sections of the website will be short in length. Last week provided little resolve to the previous week’s dilemma regarding bias but it was interesting to watch a lower low each of the trade days (technically a negative bias) but the open interest continued to decline each day (non-supportive of a bearish bias). Discussed here several times that volume is the energy that drives price trends and having declining volume levels last week sends a warning flag. There was not break down in prices but rather what I would characterize as a slow melt. At the end on Thursday (Friday – market was closed) there had been little resolution as to the bias for this upcoming week. The market did seem to hint at testing the $3.168-$3.11 gap in the Daily Continuous, but even if it opens down in the gap on Sunday night — the trend has been over the last few weeks, that what ever direction is established in Sunday night trade — the Monday full trading day reverses. Caution is advised.

Major Support: $3.336, $3.16-$3.11-$2.97, $2.727, $2.648,
Minor Support :
Major Resistance: $3.628, $3.86, $4.168, $4.461, $4.501, $4.551, $4.746-$4.75, $5.03

Not So Fast Bulls and Bears

Weekly Continuation

Spoke last week about the expectations of a test of support at the zone around $3.68 — well that happened quickly and prices extended into the next support zone in the $3.30s before finding some footing associated with the enormous rally in all the markets (most importantly crude) after the early weakness. Associated with the volatile week was a massive liquidation of open interest, 58,210 contracts on Tuesday alone during the suggesting that there some disappointed longs, which triggered the necessary volume. From there the next area of support mentioned in the Daily was the target between support at $3.250 – $3.300 — the May contract could not fulfill that expectation. After trading as low as $3.336 May reversed higher to close at $3.816 (some would consider a solid reversal). It is not normal technical analysis, but a sudden switch from “risk off” to “risk on” resulting from events unrelated to natural gas was the trigger for the substantial high volume reversal. Crude reversed along with natural gas to trade nearly an $8 range, gold nearly $125, bitcoin nearly $9000 with similar volatile gains in risk assets across the spectrum.

Such events are unpredictable and are usually unwound, but are also often consequential. In the case of gas, the reversal traded with 1,122,556 contracts and further liquidation of 44,450 contracts of open interest as participants with short positions were whipsawed out of the previously falling market. Between the two events (the liquidation of long positions on Tuesday and short positions on Wednesday) total open interest was reduced nearly 100,000 contracts and another 30,000 on Thursday. There are not a lot of comparable wholesale liquidations that match those few days.

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Crude Market in Decline– Gas Remains Range Bound

Weekly Continuous

Beginning its first full week as prompt May, jumped higher but the attempt to trade further into resistance was frustrated by a previously violated short – term trend line. For the third time in three weeks prompt gas traded a weekly reversal, each of those reversals has been traded with diminishing volume suggesting an increasing “uneasy equilibrium”, as prompt gas consolidates ahead of a range expansion…one way or the other.

Prompt gas has been trading between a pair of high volume lows ($3.554 and $3.742) and a pair of high volume highs ($4.476 and $4.551) One exception of the brief spike to the March high, since mid – February . The zone between the two lows (02/18 & 03/03) is very well defined support that has been tested once…on 03/27 when about to expire April traded the March low, $3.689 and simultaneously completed an expected regression to the 20 – week SMA. This week’s poor close, strongly suggests May will retest that support…and an important trend line on the May chart.

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Range Remains

Weekly Continuous

After consecutive poor weekly closes following the price spike to $4.901, April nearly completed the thought of a regression to the continuation 20 – weeks SMA. The expiring prompt traded as low as $3.689 (the value of the 20 week avg was $3.655) before recovering enough to go off the board at $3.861, a little under March ($3.906) but higher than January ($3.644) and February ($3.535). Four calendar ’25 settlements in relatively close proximity suggests that he gas market is adjusting to a higher price level and is/has (or will) come to some kind of uneasy equilibrium. New prompt May followed the expiring prompt lower and tested support at its January high before reversing back through its 50 – day SMA. Well bid into the close May posted a gain for the week, its first since the high weekly close on 03/07 ($4.456).

Characteristically, in a healthy uptrend volume increases as prices push higher. When a correction occurs volume should diminish. As can best be seen, aside from the volume divergence that occurred during the week of the spike high (a higher high with lower volume) that is what has occurred since the January low and periodically before. Particularly the three higher weekly closes following that January low with increasing volume, the “inside” week with a lower close with diminished volume and more volume as prompt April traded to the early March high weekly close. Since then, with lower closes volume for each week has steadily diminished. This week’s lower volume reversal after April lost ground into expiration is an indication that the gas market is not ready to run back toward the highs, but suggests that the foundation is being laid.

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New April Closing Low

Weekly Continuous

After consolidating in a daily closing range of about $.20 for five days April violated a slightly rising short term trend line with the highest volume of the week. The low of the week followed but sponsorship at the continuation 50 – days SMA limited further decline. Prompt gas tested, held and recovered from the continuation 50 – day for the third time since 02/18, but the violated trend line limited the recovery and April closed below $4.00 for the first time during March.

For all but an hour or so that the spike to and failure at $4.901 lasted, April has spent its entire tenure as prompt between a high volume low traded on 03/03 ($3.742) and a high volume high traded on 03/04 ($4.551) . The extremes of those two expanded ranges present important support and resistance for the upcoming months) particularly the lower one which now is approximately equal to the 50 – day SMA of soon to expire April gas.

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Slight Reversal of Fortune

Weekly Continuous

April gas opened at $4.467 and quickly extended the rally to $4.901 (the highest price paid since 12/28/22) but the sponsorship/volume did not develop to support the higher price and prompt gas reversed lower. After setting a higher high before running out of support, the market quickly reversed and sold off in a quick three day fashion. Unfortunately (for bears) it did not reverse through the previous week’s low, and it lacked a significant volume compared to the previous weeks. Though prices clearly reversed — from a technical standpoint — it can’t be considered a weekly reversal– but it does indicate that the recent strength may be weak in the teeth and further jumps in prices will have significant road blocks between $4.50-$4.90 in the coming months.

The market has been trading in ranges for the last couple of months and perhaps the current market is setting up the new and next range $3.75-$4.90.

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Bias Change

Weekly Continuous

Mentioned a few weeks ago to respect the run and constant tests above the $4.00– perhaps the market was changing its bias. All of that respect was under the assumption that prices were going to make a strong test of support at $3.16 and possibly below. Those thoughts left the building with the second largest gain this year…second only to the $.634 gain for week ending 01/10. The “outside” day reversal higher (with the most volume since the day before the February high) was followed by an extension of the rally through that February high for only the seventh time in the last twenty years, but the third time in the last four. April traded to the highest price since 12/30/22 and to a new high weekly close $4.399.

Been discussing the expectation and the divergences looking for the seasonal decline (Q1 low) which is clearly unlikely at this pace. You have to count the two plus weeks decline from the January high ($4.369 – $2.990) that just held the December low ($2.975) as the Q1 low the gas market has traded the Q1 low in January several times in history (in ’21 & ’22 the season low was traded during late December. The last time there was an actual January Q1 low was in ’13). Notwithstanding the dramatically increased likelihood that the “winter” low is in place, divergences, non – confirmations by purely mathematical indicators, are evidence of an underlying weak technical market structure. That which does not mean the market can’t move higher and eventually “cure” those divergences. While not foreclosing that possibility…it is my experience that cure is exceptionally rare without a significant correction in terms of price and time (a correction that lasts two weeks does not meet my expectations.

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Near term Support Fails

Weekly Continuation

The historical consistency of declines following rallies to calendar February highs were discussed over the last week particularly 2014 and 2021 (other years described briefly were ’03, ’05 and ’08) that I did not go into. While there were notable similarities between all but ’08, there were also some substantial differences in the degree of weakness that followed. The two most recent examples are illustrative.

In 2014, March gas traded and reversed from its high on 02/24 (similar to March ’25), but the percentage decline to settlement was a little more than twice that of the recent decline. From the February high at $6.493 prompt gas fell to its “Q1” low on 04/02 at $4.221. An erratic Q2 rally peaked on 06/16 at $4.886, significantly below the average of Q2 rallies. Interrupted by several rallies which all peaked at lower highs prompt gas did not print the 2014 low until the last trading day of the year at $2.882.

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Market Action “Rhymes”

Weekly Continuous

On Tuesday the market further expanded recent range reversal, after a gap lower opening when trading resumed for the holiday shortened week, and Wednesday’s upside follow through took March to test the zone of resistance between the December and January highs ($4.201 – $4.367). My idea was that a test of that resistance would be an “unlikely event”– I was wrong.

On Wednesday prompt gas posted a new high daily close, $4.280 v $4.258 on 01/16…the highest daily close since 12/30/22 (just before then prompt February ’23 gapped lower to begin the New Year). March extended the rally as high as an after market, Globex trade to $4.476 closing a long – standing gap on the monthly charts left at the beginning of ’23, before a reversal lower. The week’s ending close after another daily gain, $4.243…notably within the resistance previously described, was the highest in twenty – six months.

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Interesting Battle On Highs

Weekly Continuous

Spoke repeatedly last week about the lack of a higher high for the March contract and the potential impact on the price run of late. Interestingly enough though, was the market closed on the highs of the Week (see chart above). In order to trade a higher high in Feb– the market will need to trade above the Jan high, and since 2009 the calendar January has been exceeded during February twice, 2014 and 2021. In the former the February high ($6.493) was not exceeded until January ’22. The 2021 February high ($3.316) was the high until the following June.

All the technical factors suggest that March will remain “inside” the range traded during January pending a retest of support presented by the December/January lows ($2.977 – $2.990). That said, the sponsorship that propelled March to an $.80/dt rally from the calendar January ending low was surprising.

On Thursday, more than a million contracts changed hands in the natural gas market with the prompt posting a daily gain of only $.063. The 50 – day SMA of volume is 600,638. A principle of technical analysis is that result must reflect effort…in my view it did not.

Over the history of natural gas trading there have not been very many days that volume was a million contracts or more, with 02/13/25 was the ninth time. All of the first eight either preceded or coincided with at least a moderately significant event. Should you be interested in the others send me an email and I will reply. It is also relatively rare for a volume spike to occur with natural gas in a definable range…and ever rarer that an increase in open interest accompanied the volume spike. A guess is that buyers were falling all over themselves to secure supplies when the collapse into and following February expiration was not extended…I think those outlooks will be corrected in the coming few days. Continue to expect the March contract closing the remainder of the gap left on 02/03 ($3. 118 – $3.161).

Major Support:,$2.727-$2.784, $2.648, $2.39, $2.35, $2.112,
Minor Support : $3.34, $3.167, $3.00-$2.95, $2.914, $1.856,$1.89-$1.856
Major Resistance: $3.829, $3.92, $4.00, $4.201, $4.378-$4.394, $4.461,