Fundamentals began playing a larger role in a rebounding weekendmarket Friday as several sources expressed relief that thepreviously frenetic screen was beginning to calm down.

Following two straight days of massive losses, quotes went upFriday by about 20 cents or more in nearly all cases except theRockies and California, where most gains were in the teens. Theonly point to achieve merely single-digit increases wereintra-Alberta and the Southern California border. Although neitherof California’s big LDCs issued an OFO for the weekend, breaking apattern established a few weeks ago, just the possibility of onewas enough to keep the price mood subdued in the Golden State, amarketer explained. “And remember, we just know there’s no OFO onfor Saturday; you still have to watch out for a potential oneSunday,” he said.

Traders reported numbers tended to go up a few cents at mostpoints as the morning proceeded. “Everything seemed to be creepingup along with the Nymex,” said an eastern utility buyer. “We triedto buy most of our gas early before the screen got going.”

A notable exception to the uptrend was intra-Alberta, where onesource said he did his deals in the mid C$5.00s but saw laternumbers on an electronic trading service fall to the C$4.90 area.NOVA was calling customers to advise that a change in dailyimbalance tolerances to quell excessive linepack might becomenecessary, causing buying to dwindle, he said. “I think they werejust using the advisory for psychological impact, hoping thepotential for a [tolerance] change would cause people to cut back”since tolerances remained normal as of late Friday afternoon, hesaid.

It was obvious that people were starting to turn airconditioners on again in the major market areas of the Midwest andNortheast after those regions had been unseasonably chilly in thefirst half of last week, a marketer observed. Electric utility loadwas notably stronger, he said.

A lot of traders were keeping an eye on the low-pressure area inthe Gulf of Mexico (the downgraded former Tropical Depression One)to see if it might re-strengthen and threaten any production overthe weekend, but that looked increasingly unlikely, according tothe Gulf Coast trader of a large marketer.

A couple of sources said they indexed all weekend deals becausethey didn’t want to risk making a mistake by trading too early ortoo late after the screen had been seesawing so wildly all week.One, a producer, commented, “It’s good news for us that prices arehigh, but we’d like a little more steadiness in the market than allthis up-down-up-down stuff. It’s kind of disconcerting to see yourgas worth $4.20 one day, $3.90 the next day, then maybe back up to$4.20 the next day.”

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