Eastern markets held up relatively strongly for the weekend considering the lower-demand flow period and a continuation of weak weather fundamentals. Most points in the East ranged from flat to just a few pennies down Friday, and a few scattered ones achieved small gains. The West stayed with its earlier trend of mostly larger declines, led by an OFO-related plunge for border-SoCalGas.

A neutral screen was irrelevant to cash, said a marketer, but he found it surprising when most of his citygate purchases in the coolish Northeast were down a nickel or less. With that kind of bearish weather coupled with a typical weekend demand slump, he thought it reasonable to have expected more softness. He looks for the rest of the June swing market to play out with mostly range-bound pricing.

Not only was a cold front moving through the Northeast Friday, but another one was invading the Southeast with thunderstorms. Pipeline affiliates Texas Eastern and Algonquin posted advisories that due to low demand expectations and limited ability to absorb excess gas, they were accepting no due-pipeline makeup nominations for the weekend and asked shippers to match receipt and delivery volumes carefully. Tropical storm activity remained quiet in the Atlantic basin.

Some end-users, especially municipal utilities, “are loving this bear market,” a Gulf Coast trader reported. They’re attempting to lock in fixed prices at current levels in term deals that had been based on indexes or triggers, he said.

Volatility was huge at a number of Rockies/Southwest basin/California points, with San Juan quotes covering more than a dollar from top to bottom and dipping below $2 at the low end. Prices trended higher as the morning went on, said one trader. There was nothing fundamental to cause the run-up, she said. “The only thing I can see is that prices started much weaker than we expected, so maybe there was some psychological motive to move back up.”

The border-SoCalGas dive was an obvious call, according to a marketer. Traders began the day expecting a high-linepack OFO, and the LDC responded accordingly with an Overnominations Day declaration for Saturday, she said. PG&E did not issue an OFO, leaving citygate numbers in the unusual position of trading above border-SoCal Friday.

Other than basis talk, July business remained mostly a non-starter as of Friday. “I was trying to get people all week to start working on July deals, but everybody wanted to wait until next week,” a Gulf Coast source said.

In an admittedly premature outlook, a couple of traders said it appears that July indexes will be only mildly softer in the East, and some eastern points could be flat, but western markets are likely to see substantive declines. A producer noted that barring any major deviation from Friday’s regular-session close at $3.742, July futures hinted at Henry Hub prices next month in the vicinity of June’s $3.73 index.

Chicago basis has weakened considerably since being around plus 7 cents in the first half of June, a marketer said. He quoted the citygate at plus 1-2 cents Friday. Another marketer said border-SoCalGas basis continued to hover in the plus $2.00 area.

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