As many had expected, the cash market retreated slightlyThursday from the early May aftermarket peaks posted Wednesday. Thedecline was moderate with most points off anywhere from a penny ortwo to just over a nickel.

Fundamental influences continued to be lacking, so nearly allsources considered the futures screen’s drop of more than 6 centsas the main cause of cash softness. However, a GulfCoast/Midcontinent trader said power generation load, which hadhelped drive the market higher earlier in the week, appeared to beeasing off as more non-gas-fired units come back on-line frommaintenance or refueling outage. Another source noted that manypeople thought the Wednesday afternoon storage report was slightlyon the bearish side.

Chicago and Michigan citygates were trading at approximateparity around $2.40 Thursday after entering the month with Michiganindexes commanding a premium of 4-5 cents over Chicago’s, amarketer said.

A marketer was unsure whether to expect more softness today”because the screen seems to have found a bottom at $2.26[Thursday].” But another marketer wasn’t hesitant about predictingfurther price declines, citing mild weather overall and the usualdropoff in weekend gas demand.

One source expects a good number of deals done today to be madefor gas flow through the middle of next week as a large part of thetrading community prepares to attend the GasMart/Power ’99 tradefair in Dallas Monday through Wednesday.

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