Open interest in natural gas futures markets shrank for the fourth session in a row on Wednesday, this time by just 179 contracts according to preliminary readings from CME Group. In the same line, volume went down by around 161.3K contracts, partially reversing the previous daily build.

Natural Gas: Upside appears limited around $3.00

Natural gas prices gapped higher on Wednesday and reached multi-week highs around the $2.90 region. The sharp move, however, was on the back of shrinking open interest and volume and exposes a potential knee-jerk in the very near term. In the meantime, there is a tough up-barrier around the $3.00 mark per MMBtu.