Hot Rolled Futures Consolidate Recent Gains...

The hot rolled futures market over the past week has consolidated gains on the nearby months.  May and June have traded to a high of $685 and $680, reflecting optimism in continued short term strength in the physical market. The back end of the curve is not experiencing as strong buying interest, as the Q3 and Q4 periods have traded between $635-645 this week. It seems that the futures market is pricing in a softening in the market after the recent supply disruptions get resolved and imports begin to show up in force.  Overall, the market has been fairly quiet this past week, while volumes have been strong, prices have remained fairly stable.  It feels that over the next few weeks a big move may be had with either June softening or the back end pushing up, depending on whether the physical market strength maintains.  

Volumes have been strong the past week with over 20,000 tons trading.