Cash prices Monday recovered all or most of the territory theyhad lost on Friday-and even more in some cases. Buoyed by a sharplyhigher screen and even a bit of re-emerging air conditioning load,cash numbers moved up by about a dime or more at virtually allpoints except Northern California, topped off by scattered gains of20-21 cents. Even crude oil futures, which had been in free-falllate last week, added a little psychological strength by clawingtheir way back above $21/bbl.

Cash traders came out of the chute with some upward momentumalready established from Friday’s dramatic reversal by an initiallymuch lower futures screen, one marketer said. He and others were inconsensus that more increases are almost a certainty today in lightof futures tacking on several more cents after cash activity hadended for the day. One also observed that swing swaps were up forboth Panhandle Eastern and Henry Hub.

A source quoting several Midcontinent pipes in the low to mid$2.40s said high temperatures, especially out West and in Texas,”have really gotten people’s attention.” California’s heat, alongwith outages at several western power generation plants, have beenkeeping prices strong there for a while, he noted. But highsapproaching 90 degrees in Texas have just recently started givingsignificant boosts to AC load again after a period of relativecoolness, he said. He knew of some Texas traders withdrawing fromstorage to meet electric utility demand.

A Houston-based source said Texas prices “kept trickling up allmorning long.” Houston Ship Channel started around $2.50 and woundup in the mid $2.50s, he said, while South Texas numbers went fromthe low to mid $2.40s early on into the high $2.40s.

Activity at Canadian points was extremely light due to thenation’s Thanksgiving Day holiday. An American marketer said heknew of at least a few Calgary traders who came into their officesfor a brief while in the morning. He added that his Sumas deal at$2.41 Monday was more representative of the market than thoseaveraging $2.27 in four-day deals done Friday. Another source whoworks the Southwest basins said it was a notably “thin” market withthe Canadians out on holiday, but otherwise routine.

Forecasters were monitoring a large area of disturbed weather inthe western Caribbean Seas. However, according to the NationalWeather Service, “Some reliable computer models indicated tropicalcyclone formation in the area and others do not.” An Air Forceplane is ready to investigate the system today if necessary, NWSsaid.

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