Prices declined but recovered from some of the declines by day’s end. This leaves the contract starting to test some of the recent prompt contracts have established. While not conclusive, the rebound has brought some support that may allow for further gains.
Major Support: $2.843, $2.727, $2.648 Minor Support : Major Resistance:$2.97-$2.99-$3.00, $3.061, $3.16, $3.192, $3.25-$3.31,$3.39, $3.62, $4.168, $4.461,
Went into the technical details of the rally last week in the Weekly section. Early trade on Monday and Monday night suggests the market is not comfortable with last week’s trade and expiration, as prices are declining off of the close on Friday. Due to the close a brief correction is clearly called for– the key issue is how far the correction will take prices down. Should the declines be rejected then the resistance around $3.16 will become critical.
Major Support: $2.843, $2.727, $2.648 Minor Support : Major Resistance:$2.97-$2.99-$3.00, $3.061, $3.16, $3.192, $3.25-$3.31,$3.39, $3.62, $4.168, $4.461,
Prompt gas traded a semi – classic “outside” week reversal from a new low for 2025, ”semi”, because the reversal came with lower volume than a week ago.
A classic weekly reversal (market’s preferred method of signaling that an unsustainable low (or high) has traded, trades with volume greater than any recent week. The absence of higher volume during the past week suggests that while a significant low is likely in place it is also likely some testing will be required to confirm that low. The reversal was particularly noteworthy because it came without a significant contribution from premium awarded to the new prompt. When September went off October was awarded only $.019, suggesting little sentiment for any kind of rally. A year ago October was awarded $.117 premium and ultimately rallied through Labor Day and to trade the high of its tenure as prompt the day it went off the board. This week’s low traded almost exactly on the anniversary of the Q3 ’24 low (08/25 v 08/28).
The new prompt closed back above the weekly trend line violated a week ago, and above the value for calendar August for the monthly trend line ($2.997 v $2.978). Notwithstanding that lack of confirmation, last week’s violation still suggests that the uptrend is vulnerable.
Basic technical analysis suggests that once a well – defined trend line is violated the price objective becomes the next readily identifiable trend line. In this case that is the trend line declining from the March and June highs . On a continuation basis the current value of the declining resistance is $3.553, falling about $.055/ week. On the October chart the value is $3.495 falling about .07/week.
October rallied from $2.735 to $3.029, closing higher each day of the past week. It has been a while since gas closed higher for five days (prompt gas for four). It is likely that the rally days resulted from an oversold condition and minor short covering. Open interest did fall modestly this week (price up, open interest down means short covering was a contributor) but it was also an expiration week (when the last holdouts in an expiring contract balance their books).
The test is going to be whether buyers continue to bid up October when trading resumes. Resistance is plentiful, beginning not far above Friday’s close and then there is the early September price negative seasonality discussed previously. If, October can extend its rally despite that negativity then it will begin to look like October ‘24s tenure.
A year ago after the August low October suffered only a minor setback after Labor Day then continued to rally setting the high of its tenure on the day it went to settlement. Prompt November did give up most of the gains but traded a higher low and then Q4/Q1 rally, lasting until March, began.
Neither volume nor open interest confirmed lower lows with the Bollinger Bands study showing prices more than two standard deviations below the 20 – week SMA. Momentum indicators began to moderate with the primary “leading” indicator turning up without reaching extremely oversold conditions, but it seems the most significant technical factor is the absence of volatility. The average range of the last fifteen days has fallen as low as .121 (08/26). A year ago one day ahead of the August Q3 low the daily ATR was .112.
Major Support: $2.843, $2.727, $2.648 Minor Support : Major Resistance:$2.97-$2.99-$3.00, $3.061, $3.16, $3.192, $3.25-$3.31,$3.39, $3.62, $4.168, $4.461,
It was clear that the storage release supported the recent gains and gave the momentum to challenge the $3.00 level. We shall see how far the momentum will carry the action but I would caution against loading up on this rally- rather wait and see how the holiday set up plays.
Major Support: $2.843, $2.727, $2.648 Minor Support : Major Resistance:$2.97-$2.99-$3.00, $3.061,$3.192, $3.25-$3.31,$3.39, $3.62, $4.168, $4.461,
Discussed yesterday that the expiration may have unexpected support due to the amount of selling that occurred in the last couple of week. That support brought the weak Sep contract up to the Oct contract level that takes over as prompt tomorrow– just in time for a storage release. A brief pause to initiating new positions may be warranted.
Major Support: $2.727, $2.648 Minor Support : Major Resistance:$2.843, $2.97-$2.99-$3.00, $3.061,$3.192, $3.25-$3.31,$3.39, $3.62, $4.168, $4.461,
Not a lot has changed going into the expiration. The chart has rolled over to the October contract. The only observation I have is that the selling runs out during the trade day — it almost seems like all the selling for the last couple of seeks (creating the over sold condition) has created the need for some brief short covering support at the end.
Major Support: $2.727, $2.648 Minor Support : Major Resistance:$2.843, $2.97-$2.99-$3.00, $3.061,$3.192, $3.25-$3.31,$3.39, $3.62, $4.168, $4.461,
Expiration of the September contract is upon us with options going out today. Yesterday tried to extend the lows only to find some support, likely from some folks covering earlier placed shorts. Would leave the market alone for now unless you are looking for some lows in the winter months as the trade is starting to catch the recent trend.
Major Support: $2.727, $2.648 Minor Support : Major Resistance:$2.843, $2.97-$2.99-$3.00, $3.061,$3.192, $3.25-$3.31,$3.39, $3.62, $4.168, $4.461,
Prices opened Sunday fulfilling the expectation of lower prices during the expiration of the September contract as discussed in the Weekly area. Suggest reviewing those comments for not only the upcoming expiration, but also prices later in the year.
Major Support: $2.727, $2.648, $2.514 Minor Support : Major Resistance:$2.843, $2.97-$2.99-$3.00, $3.061,$3.192, $3.25-$3.31,$3.39, $3.62, $4.168, $4.461,
The collapse continued last week as prices extended the declines though some support trend lines and previous month lows. The violated trend line now becomes ascending resistance, as the dominant near term technical factor. Given soon to expire September’s weakness into the week’s close the trend line is likely to contain any near term short covering rally as well as any early sponsorship for October (which closed at $2.800, $.122 premium to September and also below the coming week’s value of the trend line). Given the violations of trend line support during the last two weeks and prompt gas entering the seasonally weak period during the coming week (Labor Day falls on September 1st this year), the upside prospects for the expiring contract and new prompt October seem low.
Historically, the days leading into and following Labor Day has been one of the most consistently price negative periods all year. Since I first noticed the tendency, declines were and continued to be consistently in double digits. When they weren’t (which was rare) I learned from history, that when the markets that fail to decline when they are supposed to (based on historical norms) are likely going to go up and less than average declines tend to precede robust Q4/Q1 rallies. In ’23 the decline was 12.5%. The entire Q4 rally was a little more than a dollar counting the premiums awarded to the November and December contracts. The Q4 peaked on 10/31/31 at $3.630, 70% higher than the pre Labor Day low. A year ago the Labor Day decline was short and measured only 7.4%. During the period that immediately followed (about three weeks) prompts October and November rallied $.894. You might remember that the rally that began from the pre Labor Day low was not exhausted until early March with the prompt price 164% higher.
Perhaps a brief response to the bearish date flooding the market, a small bounce took prices higher through the day. For bulls be cautious, for bears wait and and sell against any rally .
Major Support: $2.727, $2.648 Minor Support : Major Resistance:$2.843, $2.97-$2.99-$3.00, $3.061,$3.192, $3.25-$3.31,$3.39, $3.62, $4.168, $4.461,