Isra-Mart srl: Natural Gas: U.S. natural gas futures ended lower on Monday

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The dollar rallied against the yen and Swiss franc on Monday as strong U.S. consumer spending data reduced fears of another U.S. recession. U.S. consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of economic activity, rebounded strongly in July from June. Weak pending sales of existing homes, however, showed the housing sector remains soft. The euro fell across the board on Tuesday as a deluge of factors, from bickering in Europe about a bailout deal for Greece to crumbling U.S. consumer confidence, sapped risk tolerance. Peripheral euro zone debt worries haunted the region as Finland proposed that Greece provide collateral in return for more aid, Reuters reported. Helsinki's plan sparked requests from Austria, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Slovakia for similar treatment. The euro briefly pared losses against the dollar after the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's August meeting showed some members wanted substantial action to stoke the economy. The earlier release of a report indicating confidence among U.S. consumers plunged in August to its lowest in two years kept investors risk averse. The Swiss franc posted sharp gains against the euro and the dollar on Wednesday after a top government official said Switzerland would have to live with a strong currency and the Swiss National Bank shied away from intervention. The SNB has been conspicuously absent from the currency forwards market since last week. It did not take any new measures after making an announcement on three of the last four Wednesdays in August. The euro slipped against major currencies on Thursday, driven by data showing contraction in manufacturing in most euro zone countries, a day ahead of a key U.S. jobs report that could add to market fears about recession. The pace of growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector in August was better than economists had forecast, but still at its lowest level in two years. Data showing contraction in the manufacturing sectors of most euro zone countries drove broad euro selling, analysts said. The weakness extended to Germany, the euro zone's biggest economy, where manufacturing grew in August at its slowest pace in almost two years. The dollar is likely to trend lower in the week ahead after another abysmal U.S. jobs report on Friday, which investors perceive as raising the likelihood of further action by the Federal Reserve to aid the economy. With the benchmark U.S. interest rate already close to zero, the Fed is limited in the actions it can take. Two rounds of quantitative easing costing $2.3 trillion, where the U.S. central bank bought government securities for its own balance sheet, simultaneously increasing liquidity in the economy, has failed to increase economic growth.

Commodities – Gold prices surged more than 2.5 percent on Monday, and crude oil gained over $2 a barrel, boosted after a Federal Reserve official said he favored strong and prolonged central bank policy accommodation.

Participants in those markets read the comments from Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans in a CNBC television interview as paving the way for further liquidity to be added to U.S. markets. Gold and oil seesawed on Wednesday and finished mixed as pressure from end-of-month profit taking and mixed U.S. economic readings was countered at times by hopes for new central bank stimulus measures and big declines in the gasoline inventory.

Trading in most commodity markets was choppy, as investors adjusted their books for the end of an exceptionally volatile August, a month typically slowed by summer vacations.

Copper carved out healthy gains on supply concerns in Chile. The better-than-expected U.S. manufacturing data helped lift confidence in the U.S. economy. Arabica coffee and raw sugar futures on ICE eased in early trade on Thursday, tracking a setback in a wide range of commodity markets including grains and base metals.

Other financial markets, including global equities, were also losing ground with investors entering the month in one of the most bearish moods in recent times. Gold rose and industrial commodities fell on Friday after U.S. data showed job growth ground to a halt in August, feeding fear that the world's largest economy could fall into recession without stimulus

Safe-haven buying boosted gold and silver by 3-4 percent. Corn, soybeans and wheat also rose as investors in agricultural commodities focused on fundamentals such as crop yields.

Industrial commodities dropped after the report, and traders and analysts said they would have fallen further except that the weak data made it more likely the U.S. Federal Reserve would launch a third round of government debt purchases, or quantitative easing, known on Wall Street as QE3.

Natural Gas U.S. natural gas futures ended lower on Monday, as East Coast power outages left in the wake of Hurricane Irene and moderating U.S. weather slowed overall demand and helped drive September to a soft expiration. Hurricane Irene, which tore up the East Coast over the weekend, left more than 5 million homes and businesses without power, but no serious damage so far has been reported to gas pipeline and power plant infrastructure. On Tuesday after an early dive to a six-month low, lifted by news that another storm had formed in the Atlantic despite comfortable supplies and moderating U.S. weather. U.S. natural gas futures ended up sharply on Wednesday, backed by technical buying after the previous session's strong close and concerns about rising storm activity ahead of the September peak for hurricanes. It was the biggest one-day gain for the front month in nearly seven weeks, and at 5.8 percent, the biggest two-day run in three months. Front-month U.S. natural gas futures ended nearly unchanged on Thursday after a seesaw session, with a bullish inventory report and storm concerns before a long weekend countered by milder weather forecasts. It had hit a three-week high of $4.13 after the Energy Information Administration report, then slipped to $3.97 as forecasts continued to moderate. Friday saw sharp declines as comfortable supplies, a weak economy and forecasts for milder weather trumped concerns about a Gulf Coast storm ahead of a long holiday weekend. Front-month futures hit a three-week high of $4.13 after Thursday's bullish storage report.