A former board member of the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) pled guilty Tuesday to two felonies illegal trading in the natural gas market and tampering with physical evidence.
With Hurricane Emily's path looking less threatening to a majority of Gulf of Mexico production, August natural gas futures on Monday probed the downside, trading as low as $7.560 before settling at $7.652, down 19.7 cents from Friday.
Following the long holiday weekend, traders on Monday wasted virtually no time getting their positions across as the December natural gas futures contract plummeted on its final day. After burrowing below the $11.030 support level (from Nov. 7) to record a trade at $10.880 just before 1:30 p.m. EST, the expiring prompt month rallied to go off the board at $11.180, down 44 cents for the day.
Coming in well within industry expectations, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday morning that 162 Bcf was withdrawn from underground stores for the week ended Dec. 23. The report fell on mostly deaf ears within the industry as February natural gas futures worked lower into the afternoon to settle at $11.223, down 41.4 cents from Wednesday's close.