The hypervolatility in swing deals done Friday for Nov. 1-2 madeit difficult to gauge where the cash market was moving Monday. Butthe overall mix of flat to about a dime or so up or down (includingjust about all points in between) amounted to a general wash thattilted a little bit to the negative side, sources said. Besides,they added, it was generally a quiet day for most traders as theytook stock of bidweek and prospects for the upcoming days.

One of the biggest drops of about 20 cents into the mid $1.90soccurred at the Consumers Energy citygate. Constraints on newdeliveries remain in effect through today, but Consumers will beginaccepting increases Wednesday at various citygate interconnects, anelectronic trading service said.

“We saw some strength along with the screen today” as severalpoints registered late run-ups, said a Gulf Coast/Northeastaggregator. But there’s still no “real” weather in the Northeast,she added.

Another trader said El Paso-Permian was one of the rare pointshe saw tailing off in late activity.

Intra-Alberta is just about the only market above its Novemberindex of C$2.56, said a Calgary source who averaged $2.58 thereMonday and had seen numbers get as high as C$2.68 on an electronictrading screen late in the afternoon. An extra 400 MMcf/d of exportcapacity opened up Sunday on TransCanada, she said, and thatcombined with a big plant going down for maintenance Monday, takingabout 200 MMcf/d off the market.

A Midcontinent producer said buyers waited in vain for PanhandleEastern to sink into the $1.60s; his lowest sale was $1.72 andprices tracked up late. Market-area weather looks to be a littlecooler than forecast, he said, so he expects Midcontinent pipes tobe back around indexes in the $1.90s fairly soon. It’s much tooearly to tell how Duke Energy’s sale of Panhandle Eastern andTrunkline to CMS Energy, the parent firm of Consumers Energy (seestory in this issue) will affect shipper dealings with the twopipelines, sources said.

The Malin-PG&E citygate spread has really narrowed ($2.22vs. $2.54 in GPI’s November indexes), and that 32-cent gap is smallenough to send chills down the spines of Redwood path holders, amarketer said. Many of them paid 29 cents for the capacity in anopen season and were rewarded subsequently with an average spreadof about 43 cents, but now that is shrinking, he added. Strongdemand at Malin is the chief reason, the marketer said.

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