Open interest in natural gas futures markets dropped for the second consecutive session on Monday, now by nearly 22K contracts according to preliminary readings from CME Group. Volume, instead, increased by around 86.4K contracts after two daily pullbacks in a row.

Natural Gas: Another test of the $2.00 area remains on the table

Prices of the natural gas extended further the rebound on Monday. The bullish move, however, was on the back of shrinking open interest, which removes strength from the current uptrend and opens the door to some corrective decline in the very near term. That said, another retracement to the area of recent lows in the sub-$2.00 mark per MMBtu should not be ruled out for the time being.