Buoyed by the screen’s late-Wednesday run-up and continuedfirmness in the expiring August futures contract Thursday, cashnumbers made strong gains yesterday that generally ranged betweenabout 15 cents and a little more than 20 cents. The advances tendedto be smaller in western markets, however.

Futures, and perhaps some rising storage demand now that priceshave come down from the heights reached since May, were about theonly factors contributing to cash rises, a marketer said. With theexception of triple-digit high temperatures in the desertSouthwest, mid-summer weather remains fairly mild for most otherregions, he noted. That situation isn’t going to change much nextweek either, the marketer added. The National Weather Service’ssix- to 10-day forecast shows a big chunk of the Southeast joiningmost of the Midwest and Northeast in having below-normaltemperatures, and most of the areas expected to see above-normalheat are sparsely populated.

Several sources agreed that swing business was pretty light astraders turned more of their attention to August deals. They alsoagreed that there will be very little left to do Monday becausenearly all traders will want to wrap up bidweek activity prior tothe weekend. However, there might still be a fair amount of PermianBasin action going on Monday, one said.

The moderate rise in August futures as it moved towardsettlement was causing Houston Ship Channel basis to weakenslightly to plus 1.75-2, a buyer said. The basis movement was quitea bit more profound at the Southern California border, according toa marketer. It started the day around plus 90 but eventually woundup at plus 63, he said. A couple of traders said they wereexpecting California indexes to be in the mid to high $4.40s at theborder and in the high $4.30s at the PG&E citygate.

A Midwestern source said she was glad August indexes are comingdown “but they need to be down further.” She reported talking witha small industrial customer Thursday morning who told her, “Mybudget people are screaming” over how high gas prices have soaredthis year. All she could do was tell him it looks like the budgetpeople will keep screaming for at least a while longer.

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