Considering advanced prints from CME Group for natural gas futures markets, open interest rose for the third session in a row on Thursday, this time by just 54 contracts. On the other hand, volume went down for the second consecutive day, now by nearly 25K contracts.

Natural Gas remains capped by the 200-day SMA

Thursday’s strong advance in prices of natural gas was on the back of a small uptick in open interest, which suggests that further upside could be in store for the commodity in the very near term. Against that, the 200-day SMA around $6.73 per MMBtu continues to cap the upside for the time being.