Mild softness dominated Monday’s cash trading in spite of a bigdrop on the futures screen. Drops of up to a nickel or so tended tocluster in eastern markets, where late-autumn weather is relativelymild. Meanwhile, flatness prevailed in much of the West as theNational Weather Service is predicting below-normal temperatureslater this week for the Rockies and interior parts of SouthernCalifornia.

The screen’s weakness didn’t seem to make much of an impressionon the cash market Monday, sources said, but it should result infurther cash declines today. A Rockies trader felt that the futuresdownturn failed to force prices lower in her region, but ratherimpeded an almost-certain rebound from the lower weekend numbers.Canadian points Sumas and intra-Alberta achieved rare gains for theday of US10 cents and more than C20 cents respectively.

Much as on Friday, several markets saw late rebounds as supplysqueezes developed near the end of trading, a couple of marketersagreed. “The Texas market was stronger than I thought it would be.”as prices followed an up-down-up pattern, a producer said. Plentyof people were out buying after the screen came off, she added.

Katy prices were strong, trading above Henry Hub for awhile dueto utility buying, a marketer said. Futures came down to converge,he said, but there seemed to be some sense of value in the high$2.10s for cash.

Although Malin and PG&E citygate numbers were flat toslightly higher, PG&E’s UEG (utility electric generation)division load was off by about 100 MMcf/d due to some plants beingdown, according to a Calgary source.

A marketer was hearing December basis talk of minus 13 for ElPaso-Permian and minus 7-8 for ANR Southwest.

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