The market apparently got most of the expiring September futures-related bearishness out of its system Tuesday, because Wednesday’s numbers were close to flat in a majority of cases and weighted slightly toward the higher side, especially in gains of up to 8 cents in the Rockies and San Juan Basin.

Because aftermarket prices have generally been firming for most of August except for big plunges in the immediate aftermath of the Aug. 14 blackout, strong pipeline cash-out numbers in the last week likely played a role in arresting Tuesday’s downtrend, one source pointed out.

Also, cooler weather from Canadian cold fronts was taking longer to arrive in some portions of the Midwest and Northeast than expected. “I thought temperatures would be lower today than they are, but the forecasts fooled us a bit,” said a utility buyer in the lower Northeast. “We are due for the 70s by Labor Day, though.”

Some traders also may have been looking down the road toward a couple of tropical disturbances in the eastern Atlantic that “may be nearing depression stage,” according to The Weather Channel. One that TWC called “well organized” was west-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands, while the other was about 1,100 miles east of the Leeward Islands. Closer to home, a tropical wave extending from the Bahamas to the western Caribbean had weakened since Tuesday, the forecasting service said.

A Gulf Coast marketer said most points that he trades were seeing moderate late gains. He reported an early Trunkline East Louisiana purchase in the high $4.90s but quoted subsequent deals of $5.05-10 at that point.

Going by popular convention, traders will do deals Thursday for flow through end of month, then trade Friday for Sept. 1-2 deliveries.

The screen stayed close to flat during the morning and thus did little to sway incremental prices, but its eventual expiration-day loss of 11.1 cents did tend to bring down bidweek numbers a little, a western marketer said. “But I don’t think it had a big effect since a lot of people were already wrapping up September trading” or close to it, he added. The market is rather placid and soft right now, he went on, and probably will stay that way until some “big events” shake it up. Nearly all the nukes are currently back up, late-August weather is not terribly extreme, and the storage situation is looking much better than last spring, he noted.

An East Coast utility buyer said she was going with no baseload supplies for September, although she also commented, “You never know what can happen. Of course, September is considered a prime Atlantic hurricane month.”

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