Open interest in natural gas futures markets shrank by just 185 contracts on Wednesday, partially reversing the previous daily build according to preliminary readings from CME Group. Volume followed suit and went down by more than 107K contracts.

Natural Gas appears supported by the 200-day SMA

Wednesday’s downtick in prices of natural gas was accompanied by diminishing open interest and volume, exposing the likelihood of a bounce in the very near term. The commodity, in the meantime, seems to have entered some near-term consolidative phase in the lower end of the range south of the $3.000 mark, while it remains underpinned by the key 200-day SMA around the $2.600 region per MMBtu.