The NYMEX December natural gas futures contract settled at $3.783/MMBtu on Friday, 0.5 cents above Thursday's $3.778/MMBtu close.
The contract was moving mostly sideways throughout the day, "with another failure to get anywhere technically meaningful," said Pax Saunders, analyst with Gelber & Associates.
"The market still has some work to do in breaking out of its recent trading range, but as the heating season gets underway, we definitely see time as on the side of the bulls," said Tim Evans, analyst with Citi Futures perspective.
The December contract traded Friday between $3.769/MMBtu and $3.847/MMBtu.
