Undeterred by the fact that this week’s arctic cold front wascovering its largest area yet and showing little inclination forgoing away before the weekend, cash prices took a cue from thescreen and dropped by more than a dollar at almost all pointsTuesday. In a seeming pullback from the brink of market chaos,California and the Pacific Northwest registered plunges from about$11 to nearly $25.

“I think a lot of people are risking whiplash in the neck whilewatching this market race up and down so fast and so often,” saidone source. After skyrocketing by more than 80 cents Monday, theJanuary futures contract went into power dive mode Tuesday,eventually settling down more than $1.20.

Only Transco’s Zone 6 pools fell by comparatively small amountsof less than half a dollar as the front moved into the Northeast.

Noting Chicago citygates off by more than three dollars evenwith bitter cold harsh enough to keep schools closed a second daylingering in the region, a marketer said apparently people wereusing storage to a greater degree than the day before. Areautilities had restrictions in place Monday on market-area storagewithdrawals, he said, “but those got eased up today.” Around hisoffice, he said, the marketing motto is “sell the snow.”

The general forecast trend prior to this winter (which doesn’tofficially start until Dec. 21, the marketer noted) was for acolder November-December followed by a warmer January-March, “andthat’s the way it seems to be turning out.” Anybody believing inthe forecasts for a warmer back end of this winter can feelcomfortable about withdrawing storage now, he said, but of coursethey might get in a lot of trouble toward February or March.

Basis for all of the strips is getting crazy, “up, down,sideways, backwards,” reported a Midwest trader. He was hearingChicago basis for January ranging from plus 15 to plus 90 over thepast week; mostly recently it has been in the middle at plus 40-50,he said.

about remained confined to the Midcontinent and were havinglittle market impact. A Midcontinent marketer agreed, saying hissupplies were affected only “minimally” by freeze-offs.

A trader at the PG&E citygate reporting prices from lessthan $15 to more than $28, said things came off hard early in themorning, but there was a little bounce near the end after PG&Eissued a customer-specific OFO. He said some buyers started showingup again after having dropped out of the market temporarily whileCalifornia prices went into the stratosphere. A Rockies sourcereported a similar price trend of diving for most of the morningfollowed by a late rebound.

After soaring as high as C$17 Monday, intra-Alberta numbers wereback down to the vicinity of C$12 Tuesday, one marketer said. Afterall, he continued, “it was only about minus 15 [degrees Celsius] inCalgary today compared to minus 30 Monday. We’ll take it.”

Alhtough one marketer said his company was predicting an AGAstorage withdrawal report today in the 120-150 Bcf range, “at least150 Bcf” or more summed up the most prevalent opinion. And even themarketer said he wouldn’t be at all surprised if withdrawalssurpassed 150 Bcf. A producer guessing 150-180 Bcf expected such afigure to put some upward pressure back into the cash market.

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