The market went into the long Good Friday/Easter weekend Thursday with the anticipated softness associated with generally mild weather and the typical demand slump of a holiday period. Activity and volatility were noticeably quieter than usual, several traders said.

Only Southern California border-PG&E registered a small increase. Most other points fell by about a dime or more, with the biggest declines occurring in California and San Juan Basin. California border-SoCalGas quotes led the downturn with a drop of more than 60 cents.

For a change, the screen was a non-factor as it hovered within a penny or so to either side of flat nearly all day, a marketer said. It was still pretty warm in the Southeast Thursday, he added, but traders were watching an approaching cold front expected to produce weekend temperatures that would require very little in the way of either cooling or heating.

Otherwise the weather picture was mostly moderate except in the Rockies. More than a foot of snow had fallen in Denver Wednesday, and the same system dumped another six to seven inches on Salt Lake City overnight. “It’s like winter never left,” said a Denver-based source. Despite the wintry weather, though, Rockies price declines of a little more than a dime reflected the overall market softness.

Although it did not issue an OFO, PG&E was projecting below-target linepack levels for Friday. That did not keep citygate quotes from falling more than 20 cents.

A Northeast trader said he is eagerly anticipating this week’s AGA storage report and expects a very large volume of injections. He predicted about 35 Bcf in injections for the Consuming Region East by itself, which was still in net withdrawal mode in the last report (albeit by only the small volume of 1 Bcf. “[This] week’s report should be a make-or-break event for the market going forward; that is, whether it starts going up or sees a big selloff,” the trader said.

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