Cold weather continued its grip in the Northeast, Midwest and inland West Tuesday, and extended its reach throughout the South except for the Florida peninsula. But what would normally seem to be bullish conditions were unable to prevent a broad retreat in cash prices.

Quotes ranged from flat to barely higher at Northeast citygates to more than 30 cents lower on CIG in the Rockies. Most of the losses were measured in the teens.

Because of the approaching long holiday weekend, Tuesday’s business covered through the end of November. Traders will hurriedly cobble together deals Wednesday for the first two days of December before rushing out to their Thanksgiving destinations.

A Calgary-based source was “pretty sure we’ll see more lower cash numbers Wednesday,” citing the screen’s expiration-day drop of just over 12 cents and falling prices in Tuesday’s late cash trading. The futures weakness occurred too late to have much effect on Tuesday’s quotes, he said. Alberta weather is relatively mild currently compared to much of the U.S., the source continued, quoting provincial prices for the weekend down nearly C20 cents into the mid to high C$5.40s.

People got a little more bearish on the early-December weather forecast and also may have thought recent prices were overvalued, a Gulf Coast trader said in trying to explain Tuesday’s downturn. In addition, he noted that quite a few industrials would begin holiday plant shutdowns Wednesday, which helped offset some of the weather load.

A western trader observed that it was “not really all that cold” in Denver, saying he was able to take short smoking breaks in a T-shirt, although he “wouldn’t want to stay outside like that all day.”

Despite Tuesday’s softness, New York City-based Weather 2000 sounded a somewhat bullish climatic note: “Typical of temperatures and weather witnessed around Christmas or even January, many locations around the Great Lakes, Ohio Valley and even Northeast will likely have a white Thanksgiving. Furthermore, overnight sub-freezing conditions will occur all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico coastal areas, a scenario very rare pre-December.”

Several traders reported trying to wrap up bidweek activity Tuesday in order to leave Wednesday free to concentrate on first-of-December swing deals. However, at least one anticipated finishing up December baseload Wednesday because he still had a bit of “open transportation” to fill.

The trend in bidweek prices was definitely downward, according to a marketer. She reported doing El Paso-Permian deals in the high $3.90s prior to the weekend, but was able to pick up packages ranging from the mid $3.80s to the mid $3.90s Monday and Tuesday.

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