Traders resurrected a phrase they hadn’t been using very muchlately: “following the screen.” Like a rising tide that lifts allboats, the Henry Hub futures contract for September turned in astrong performance Wednesday and spurred moderate firmness in cashnumbers. In the absence of substantial change in marketfundamentals, there was little besides the Nymex pit for cashguidance, a marketer said.

“It’s all screen-driven,” said a Calgary source of Wednesday’sprices that ranged from flat to up about a nickel. However,according to a Texas marketer, a continuation of intense heatspanning the southern states added plenty of incentive for higherprices in the Gulf Coast and Southwest.

Despite Midwest weather that remained mostly mild for this timeof year, Chicago citygates were among the day’s biggest gainers. Onthe other hand, deliveries to the Northeast hardly budged at all.

California weather may not be contributing a lot to gas burnsnow, one trader said, but Golden State load is being supported byongoing agricultural harvests. That source of demand is likely toremain strong until near the end of September, she said.

Rockies prices were mostly flat as some maintenance-relatedsupply curtailments are due to start ending today.

The afternoon announcement of formation of a tropical depressionover Mexico’s Bay of Campeche came too late to affect Wednesday’sactivity, but that and the associated run-up in Access futurespricing are expected to keep the cash uptrend going today.

A western marketer noted that AGA’s report of 51 Bcf in storageinjections last week met general expectations but seemed “on thebullish side” because the year-on-year storage deficit continued toincrease.

A Gulf Coast source starting to prepare for September businesssaid that market is looking strong at this point. He was hearingtalk of ANR-Southeast and Trunkline’s Louisiana pools trading atindex-plus-1 premiums.

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