Feeding off January’s late expiration-day rally, the futuresmarket shuffled higher yesterday as local buying slightlyout-matched trade selling in an extremely light trading session.The only notable feature was a late local-led sell-off that trimmedgains into the close. With that, the February contract completedits first day of trading as the spot contract up 2.5 cents to$2.394.

“Everyone is pretty much flat, and that’s the way they are goingto stay until next week,” a Chicago trader said. “Both weather andstorage point to higher prices, but people are tired and want to gohome without a position. Under any other circumstances, I thinkfutures would rally on fundamentals like these,” she added.

While it is expected to be cold across much of the North throughthis weekend, forecasters have revised forecasts for next week tocall for above normal temperatures. According to the latestNational Weather Service medium-range forecast, a large area of thecountry from Southern Maine to Texas including the entireSoutheastern U.S. is expected to see above- and much-above normaltemperatures. And while that does not bode well for gas demand nextweek in major metropolitan areas, bulls will insist that the reportis constructive because it features an area of below- andmuch-below normal temperatures across the Central and NorthernPlains.

Another potentially bullish footnote yesterday was the lateststorage report released after the close. According to the AmericanGas Association, a whopping 173 Bcf was withdrawn from undergroundstorage facilities last week, 6 Bcf more than last year at thistime and well above the 140-160 Bcf expected in preliminary marketscuttlebutt. Storage is currently 233 Bcf less than last year’slevel, the largest year-on-year deficit since October 1996.

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