Last week’s siege of severe winter weather retained enough market influence Friday to have weekend prices in the Northeast ranging from flat to up as much as nearly 20 cents (Transco Zone 6-NYC), although most gains were less than a dime. Western points, where some moderation of the cold was already under way, tended to see mostly tiny declines of a couple of cents or so.

Natural gas futures failed to provide any guidance for cash by dithering about in the vicinity of flat all morning before finally ending the day with no change whatsoever, a marketer said. However, some may have been impressed by the price strength in the crude oil and heating oil trading pits at Nymex, he added.

Most of Friday’s larger double-digit advances were recorded at Northeast citygates. Although most of the region’s coastal areas were expected to remain above freezing, high winds were helping to push chill factors lower. In addition, a new cold front was due in the Northeast late Sunday, according to The Weather Channel.

With bidweek finished, several traders seemed pleased to have the market enter a relatively quiet period again. Tight ranges prevailed Friday in several areas, they said.

Although last week ended on a mostly firmer price note, few see any chance of sustaining that strength this week. Virtually all of last week’s winter storms will have dissipated, and the National Weather Service expects all of the U.S. to be experiencing normal to above normal temperatures by midweek. Rising storage use is also expected to put further downward pressure on prices.

“It feels like a boring scenario for this month,” said a Gulf Coast marketer. “People are still guessing whether the market is near a bottom or no. Personally, I’ve got to think not because of all that storage overhang.”

A new wrinkle in price quotes arose when one marketer reported several deals expressed in tenths of a cent, and even one that was taken out to four places after the decimal point. Quotes involving one-quarter, one-half and three-fourths of a penny have not been uncommon in the past, but this was new.

Asked to explain, the marketer said such prices have been a recent development on the IntercontinentalExchance (ICE) on-line trading platform. It’s a case of someone raising or lowering a bid/offer number by a tiny amount just to beat another bid or offer without changing the price by much, he said, adding that he hopes the practice doesn’t catch on.

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