Cash numbers ranged from flat to just over a nickel higher at afew points Thursday, and sources were nearly unanimous inattributing the upticks mostly to the example set by the Henry Hubfutures contract. In turn, they thought the screen strength derivedfrom the fairly hefty 203 Bcf figure in AGA’s Wednesday afternoonreport on storage withdrawals last week.

Midwest citygates and Florida Gas in Louisiana were among thepoints realizing the larger increases of a nickel or so.

Although mid-winter weather was still relatively mild Thursday,traders were cognizant of forecasts for a new cold front spreadingsouth from Canada. Upper Plains low temperatures should be in thesingle digits this weekend, a marketer said.

A Western trader commented that the cash market’s firmness mustbe related to futures and “a little weather coming in” becausethere sure didn’t seem to be any significant surge in gas demand.Meanwhile, an Eastern source said, “the little bounce today wasnice because the market’s been in a rut” for a while now. There’sstill no weather to speak of in the Northeast, though, he added,and more and more East Coast utilities are turning to burning morestorage gas in lieu of buying new supplies.

One source noted overall rises of about 3 cents for Northwestand the Southern California border, but said prices tended to slipback about the same amount from their early highs as tradingproceeded.

A marketer reported doing a February deal into CIG-North Systemat $1.53 earlier this week. He said he had been trying to get moreFebruary business done, “but nobody seems interested.”

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