Softening continued in the cash market Tuesday, but the rate of decline slowed down considerably. Only a couple of points fell by more than a dime, while most of the others dropped a little more than a nickel or less. Scattered points, mostly in the Rockies, were flat to marginally higher.

Despite the mildness of Tuesday’s price drops compared with those in the preceding three trading days, sources did not see it as any sign of an impending rally. The relative firmness in some western markets was due to hot weather in much of the Rockies, inland California and the desert Southwest, they said, but otherwise fundamentals are still weak. They also noted a further futures decrease exceeding a dime.

As expected, a low-pressure area east of the Mexican coast did little more than dampen Texas Gulf Coast demand with cooling rains and caused no concern about offshore production. Several points in South and East Texas recorded some of Tuesday’s larger price downturns of more than a nickel.

“There’s no turnaround in sight,” said a marketer who trades the Northeast. “Prices should keep getting moderately softer, especially since we’re going into two shoulder months.”

September quotes were trending downward by roughly the same amount as the screen did, several traders concurred. Most bidweek activity remained focused on basis and indexed deals, but fixed-price quotes should start getting more plentiful this afternoon as people digest the September futures settlement and the latest storage report, a marketer said. Most prior guesses about AGA are centered around the 80 Bcf level, but the marketer said he heard one consulting firm floating a higher estimate of 100 Bcf.

A western source reported September Opal trading at $2.08-10 Tuesday and quoted border-SoCalGas at $2.64-66. Another trader agreed with the border numbers as an average, but said it was in the middle of a rather broad range. The border started at $2.74 but weakened along with the screen to either side of $2.60 by midafternoon, he said.

One marketer said Waha and El Paso-Permian were trading heavily for September on the IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) online platform. ICE reported volumes of 115 MMcf/d averaging $2.38 for Waha and 135 MMcf/d at $2.33 for El Paso-Permian, he said.

Here are Tuesday’s basis quotes submitted by a Gulf Coast producer: Transco Station 65 at plus 1.5 cents; TGT SL at minus 4.5 cents; Columbia Gulf-onshore at minus 5 cents; Texas Eastern-East LA at minus 8.75 cents; Tennessee 500 Leg at minus 11.25 cents; and ANR Southeast at minus 10.25 cents,

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