After a lengthy absence, “following the screen” was back invogue Friday among trader explanations for cash market movement.”How else are you going to justify rising Northeast prices for whatis normally a lower-demand weekend period?” asked a largeaggregator. A stormy front was moving beyond the East Coast intothe Atlantic, but the temperatures it left behind were still on themild side for December, he observed.

Thus there was consensus that a January futures increase of justover 16 cents was the main factor in causing weekend prices torange from flat to as much as a dime higher. Although the levels ofincrease were scattered among each region, in general they werelower in the West and higher in the East, reflecting a flip-flop ofmarket trends from earlier in the week. Cash started out ratherweakly Friday but then rode the coattails of the screen higher, aMidcontinent market said.

The market is really rallying around a significantly colder six-to 10-day forecast, a Gulf Coast trader said, “but we’re kind ofhesitant about looking much past three days out. It’s like hopingbeyond hope” that some serious winter weather is actually on theway.

However, a Northeast marketer put more stock than that in themid-range forecast, saying, “It shows that winter is finallyarriving.”

One source noted that Malin prices keep creeping closer to thoseat the Southern California border. Late last week the two pointswere only 2 cents apart, compared to December indexes in which theborder led Malin by 6 cents. People have been coming up short atMalin lately because a few major players that used to sell gasthere are no longer doing so, the source said.

Sumas padded its lead over flat Northwest domestic pricing byrising about a nickel. In addition to the Kemmerer Station constraintson the domestic product (see Daily GPI,Dec. 10), Westcoast had set its daily balancing tolerances at +20%for packing and zero for drafting. Also, a shipper who had gone shortat Sumas had a high-demand market to meet for the weekend, one tradersaid.

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