Only large rallies at Rockies points avoided double-digit losses across the board everywhere else Tuesday as the cash market further softened in response to cooling load declines not being offset by comparable gains in heating load. The previous day’s 15-cent decline by November futures applied additional downward pressure on the cash market.

Two other bearish market factors remained unchanged in the background: near-full storage facilities and a lack of any significant tropical disturbances.

The majority of declines ranged from a little more than a dime to about 45 cents. Other than western losses tending to be among the smallest, the downturns were fairly evenly distributed among geographic market regions.

In rebounds that brought to a halt their market-leading losses dating back to last Wednesday, the Rockies recorded gains between about 30 cents and a little more than 85 cents. The Rockies upticks occurred in spite of Questar’s Clay Basin storage facility remaining shut in through Wednesday and Kern River reporting high linepack systemwide Tuesday.

Florida Gas Zone 1, 2 and 3 and the Florida Gas citygate all fell 40 cents or so despite Florida Gas Transmission issuing an Overage Alert Day Tuesday (see Transportation Notes).

The eastern end of the South and the desert Southwest/Southern California area constituted the only remaining sections of the U.S. where air conditioning demand was still noticeable. Other areas were mostly on the cool to chilly side, but with nothing approaching freezing except in the Midwest near the Canadian border. After seeing temperatures plummet nearly 20 degrees in just three to four hours Monday morning, Houston was still feeling an unusual chill Tuesday but could expect a return to a more normal high around 80 Friday.

The National Weather Service (NWS) expects above-normal temperatures in a horizontal oblong area in the central U.S. during the Oct. 29-Nov. 2 workweek. The area ranges from central Ohio and the eastern edges of Kentucky and Tennessee in the East through most of the Midcontinent into the southern Rockies and much of the desert Southwest and includes most of the eastern edge of California. Below-normal temperatures are expected from South Louisiana to southeast and South Texas, and also from the Pacific Northwest through the Upper Plains into all of Minnesota.

Stephen Smith of Stephen Smith Energy Associates said he projects a storage build of 63 Bcf for the week ending Oct. 19. Ron Denhardt of Strategic Energy & Economic Research had a slightly lower estimate of 61 Bcf.

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