In response to the crisis taking place just a few hundred yards away at the World Trade Center and along with every other commodity exchange in the country, the New York Mercantile Exchange indefinitely suspended natural gas futures trading yesterday morning before the opening of the regular open-outcry session at 9:30 (EST). At that time, October futures were called to open just about unchanged from Monday’s $2.392 close. As of press time last night, Nymex had still not made an official announcement as to when it might reopen for trading. However, all three major stock exchanges will be closed today prompting some to suggest Nymex will follow suit.

The immediate reaction of the international energy markets was higher, which is the typical response in a warlike atmosphere, especially involving the Middle East. While the Nymex crude oil pit was closed yesterday, the International Petroleum Exchange in London remained open allowing October Brent crude to stage a 6% rally to more than $30 a barrel.

And while many analysts are calling for an extended period of high energy prices, others were pointing out that Tuesday’s catastrophe could push the world over the brink into a true recession, which would cut energy demand and prices. It also deserves mention that natural gas prices have shown an ability to remain somewhat independent of crude oil price swings, as switching to crude-related products is only a truly viable option in the Northeast U.S. While natural gas futures pick up some psychological influence from world energy markets, they tend to demonstrate a much better price correlation vis-a-vis the level of gas in U.S storage facilities.

The American Gas Association is expected to this afternoon release updated storage figures for last week and many market watchers believe that an injection of up to 100 Bcf is possible. If those prognostications are correct, it would be the largest refill since the middle of July when an estimated 110 Bcf was added to underground storage facilities in a one-week period.

Also of bearish potential when the market reopens is the news that Tropical Storm Felix poses almost no threat to land as it spins away from the Gulf of Mexico and toward the cooler waters of the North Atlantic.

The 8-14 day outlook from the National Weather Service has a mix of above normal readings for the central United States and into the Midwest, offset by below normal temperatures forecast for portions of the West Coast and Southeast.

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