Prices continued to slump Friday by approximately the samedegree as they had Thursday. Declines for weekend flow ranged fromas little as a couple of cents to almost a dime, with most in theneighborhood of a nickel. Another screen drop was the maininfluence on cash, sources said, and even the forecasts of a newwinter storm developing over the weekend weren’t enough to avertmore softening.

Market activity was notably quieter Friday than it had beenearlier in the week, several traders said. One said it seemed tohim the market “was taking a breather.”

Even with prices down, a marketer said Midcontinent demand forsupplies off Transwestern’s East of Thoreau segment remainedstrong, “which was good for us.”

Traders continued to expect little or no possibility of a pricerebound this week, citing predictions of warmer weather in severalregions after midweek and the still-huge year-on-year storagesurplus.

Several sources who had done no business recently with KimballTrading said the firm’s bankruptcy filing and supply cutoffs (see Daily GPI, March 12) were having nosignificant market impact that they could see. Apparently the onlyones with a problem were those who were buying gas from or selling gasto the company, one trader said. But another source, who also wasseeing no impact as of Friday commented, “That doesn’t mean it won’tcatch up with more people later.”

©Copyright 1999 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.