Everyone seems to be “joining the slow club,” one sourceremarked Wednesday as the last day of June futures trading onlynudged June baseload and the day-trading markets slightly higherfrom the holding patterns established Tuesday. Today will be muchmore active, he said, because the Nymex closes early Friday due toMemorial Day, and time is running out to get deals done.

A Gulf Coast trader, who only did one fixed-price incrementaldeal yesterday at Columbia Gulf onshore in the low $2.20s, guessedpeople are waiting for the screen to make a move. “Around theoffice, people are saying the screen is going to fall sharply. Ithink people are waiting for that to happen and then they’ll reallywork it.”

Many Midcontinent points were being offered at flat to index forJune, a source in the area said, but offers have not translatedinto sales. “Fundamentally, there isn’t much to stand on. Weather,especially, is non-existent. Frankly, we’re having a hard timeselling everything we want to. It tends to make you bearish whenyou see end-users, who used to be your market, selling gas.” In thefew deals he was able to accomplish, the bearish trader reported abaseload Northern Natural-demarc deal at $2.13 and an ANR trade at$2.12.

All was quiet on the West Coast, with incremental prices flatfrom yesterday. One trader who bought Northwest Domestic at $2.025early in the day said it came off in afternoon trading becauseelectric utilities started buying smaller volumes.

The American Gas Association report of a 73 Bcf injection forthe week ending May 21 fell on the low side of the industry’sexpectations. Many traders had expected an injection of 80-100 Bcf.This reinforces the notion that there is less gas available in thismarket, a Southeast buyer said, adding that analysts say supply isoff by 3%.

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