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The futures market was pressured lower Tuesday as sellers sentthe February contract tumbling back down to support clustered inthe $1.73-74 area. But once again the move failed to produce a newcontract low, which set off a short-covering rally that bid theprompt month higher just prior to the close. February settled at$1.817, a fraction of a penny off its high for the day and 2.1cents higher than last week’s closing price.

A run-up in citygate prices in the Northeast that had startedlate Wednesday afternoon was falling back rapidly by middayThursday, but not before some buyers had paid more than $3 intoTransco Zone 6-New York City. A trader reporting $3.00-$3.25 salesfor Zone 6-NYC said he had received a late offer of $2.65. TexasEastern M-3 numbers also were coming off hard, another source said.

After a somewhat subdued trading session Tuesday, natural gasfutures sprang back to life Wednesday in a see-saw battle betweenstorage bears and weather bulls. But, when the dust had settled itwas the bulls who took the day, leading one Houston-based trader tosurmise “weather is always king in natural gas.” The prompt Januarycontract settled up 3.8 cents at $1.99 in the regular tradingsession, before adding an additional 4 cents to finish at $2.03 inlast night’s Access session.

The cash market took a bit of a breather Friday from the uphillclimb that began last Tuesday. Weekend quotes ranged from minimallyhigher to nearly a dime lower, with most of the softnessconcentrated in the Midcontinent, Midwest citygates, Southwestbasins, northern and southern California borders and intra-Alberta.

The futures market gave back some ground early in the dayFriday, but then managed to rebound late to trade to either side ofunchanged for the day. That enabled the December contract to settlefor the second day in a row at $2.553. Estimated volume was amoderate 47,537.

After tapping on the brakes a few times Wednesday, theresurgence in November prices had its foot back on the acceleratorThursday. While not quite pedal-to-the-metal as in Tuesday’s gainsthat often hit 30 cents or more, double-digit increases againdominated the cash market.

Results of Burlington Resources, Apache Corp., Vastar Resources,and Union Pacific Resources began the tale of woe that independentproducers’ will be telling with their third quarter earnings. Thecompanies cited a common cause for their malaise – depressed gasand oil prices and liquids margins that are at historic lows.

California’s statewide electricity ballot referendum that wouldturn back parts of the state’s ongoing power industry restructuringis losing by a bigger margin in the latest nonpartisan FieldInstitute survey, but the percentage of undecided voters (36%) isstill large, according to political polling experts.

The Pipeline Customer Coalition (PCC) said it plans to supportthe proposed complaint procedures that would encourage parties tovoluntarily use dispute-resolution measures to settle theircommercial differences up-front in an attempt to expedite theprocess at FERC.