A Slow But Not Deserted Station

Crude oil, understandably, gets virtually all of the attention in the energy sector most of the time. Since cascading and catching tons of hoopla back in April, the "black gold" has since staged a spirited relief rally only to subsequently flatline, essentially, since early-June. 

Two months later, we have crude showing some life today after appearing what amounted to a deserted gas station for a while there. 

However, while crude gets the attention, the breakout in natural gas looks more convincing and more defined from a technical perspective. On the UNG ETF daily chart, updated below, we can see yesterday's surge followed up with today's follow-on strength. 

Furthermore, a natty-related play like RRC is rallying even after an earnings miss. Hence, other related plays like COG and SWN are worthy of a look on the long side as natty confirms its bullish (and potentially sea changing) inverse head and shoulders bottoming formation, highlighted below. 

Given the persistent if not stubborn strength in Treasuries, there still seems to be a significant debate brewing as to whether deflation or inflation is the chief concern going forward for markets and the economy at-large. Of course, a 1970s-esque "stagflation" is an option, blending the two. But history tells us that inflationary cycles take time to play out, which means we could still be in the very early stages of Dollar weakness and precious metal strength (and crypto, perhaps). Crude is, of course, uniquely economically-sensitive barring surprise supply shocks. 

Hence, natty is capable of trading "in its own world" far more than most commodities at times. The hurricane season threat is in play, and likely helps the commodity.

After a decade-long bear market, though, anything should help at this point.