According to advanced figures from CME Group for natural gas futures markets, open interest dropped by nearly 6.5K contracts after three daily builds in a row on Thursday. Volume, in the meantime, reversed two consecutive daily advances and went down by almost 118K contracts.

Natural Gas looks supported by the 200-day SMA

Prices of natural gas were rejected from the $4.80 area on Thursday. The downtick was accompanied by diminishing open interest and volume, removing some strength from further retracement in the very near term. In the meantime, the 200-day SMA around $4.25 per MMBtu emerges as a decent contention area for the time being.