Modest gains dominated the cash market Monday, even though warm to moderate forecasts in most areas were mostly unsupportive of price bullishness. However, a minor 3.2-cent uptick by September futures on the preceding Friday did help.

A majority of points were flat to about 15 cents higher. Losses ranged from 2-3 cents to nearly a quarter, with most of the largest ones occurring in the Midcontinent.

Despite PG&E issuing a new high-inventory OFO after ending a previous one Monday (see Transportation Notes), Malin and the PG&E citygate saw little effect in being flat and down less than a nickel, respectively.

And even though Florida Gas Transmission declared a new Overage Alert Day, the Florida citygate was once again way outside the general market trend with a plunge of about 70 cents.

Cash traders can’t count on any further futures backing Tuesday after the prompt-month Nymex contract fell 10 cents (see related story).

A low-pressure area (the remnants of Tropical Depression 5) was nearing southeast Louisiana Monday afternoon but did not appear to pose any menace to offshore production. Otherwise, there was no tropical activity of any significance, the National Hurricane Center said.

Very hot weather has largely calmed down early this week, with most southern locations due to get above the low to mid 90s Tuesday and much of the rest of the country limited to the 80s or less.

Although IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) reported Henry Hub prices rising nearly a nickel, volumes traded on its online platform fell from 795,400 MMBtu for the weekend to 694,300 MMBtu in Tuesday flows, ICE said.

Kern River was well back within its linepack comfort zone Monday after having been a bit low for much of last week.

Mild conditions had returned to his area, even though “it used to be like Houston recently,” a Lower Midwest utility buyer laughed. His company had strong gas load due to the heat in the in first half of August, but it was tending to fall off quite a bit early this week. High temperatures might get back up to around 90 by the weekend, he said, but “nothing too crazy” is in the forecast.

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