A steady trend since Monday toward greater price softness was partially reversed Thursday. Most points were essentially flat or recorded small gains or losses of less than a nickel; the more volatile ones ranged from 20 cents higher to about 15 cents lower.

Judging which way prices will move Friday proved a tough call for at least a couple of traders. On the one hand, they noted, new cold fronts will be taking mercury levels lower over the weekend in the Northeast, Midwest and Pacific Northwest through Northern California, and there was the positive influence from a firmer screen Thursday following a bullish storage report. On the other hand, though, temperatures will stay fairly moderate across most of the southern third of the U.S., and there will be the typical depression of industrial load associated with a long holiday weekend.

The Energy Information Administration extended a streak of storage reports exceeding most or all prior expectations to three weeks, saying Thursday morning that 224 Bcf had been withdrawn in the week ending Feb. 6. March futures responded by achieving a gain of more than 19 cents on the day.

A utility buyer said the northern half of Florida had cooled off again into the upper 60s after parts of the state had reached the lower 80s the day before, but the turn of weather was not enough for her company to need any new spot gas.

A Northeast utility buyer also had no deals to report, saying Thursday marked a “relatively warm two days in a row for us,” so her company was coasting on term supplies. It’s been a pretty quiet February so far, the buyer observed, but the market seems to have gotten particularly lackluster this week, with prices not going much of anywhere.

However, a large marketer doesn’t expect the current doldrums to continue much longer, with one of its staffers saying, “The cold weather is returning and I’m expecting the volatility to come back as well.”

Quotes at Northern Natural’s demarcation and Ventura points fell about a dime each as the pipeline canceled an OFO-like restriction that had been in effect for Thursday only (see Transportation Notes).

Many in the trading community have tilted in the last couple of weeks toward the perception that for all practical intents and purposes, the winter heating season has ended, despite whatever any groundhog or contrarian weather forecasters may say. That may eventually prove to be correct, one source said, but for now he prefers to abide by a notable saying from former professional baseball player Yogi Berra: “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”

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