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Baker Hughes said operating earnings before one-time charges forthe third calendar quarter will be roughly half of the 36cents/share Wall Street consensus. Baker Hughes, which merged withWestern Atlas last month , said continuing declines in activity inthe Western Hemisphere, emerging softness in several EasternHemisphere markets and modest price erosion due to activitydeclines are the reason.

There was no calm before the storm on Thursday as the futuresmarket experienced another day of volatile, choppy trading astraders turned to televisions in trading rooms across the countryfor the direction and strike probabilities of Hurricane Georges.The October contract bounced back and forth throughout the tradingsession as the market digested the imminence of supply shut ins.That prompted the spot month to move 4.8 cents higher yesterday,settling at $2.179.

The futures market shrugged off another bearish AGA storagereport and quietly traded higher at Nymex Thursday. After testingsupport in the $1.88-89 span early, the September contractrebounded to the mid-$1.90s where it remained in afternoon trade.The prompt month settled at $1.953, up 3.6 cents on the day.

UtiliCorp United said its power marketing operations willcontribute positively to second quarter earnings before interestand taxes. Wholesale electricity volumes for the quarter areexpected to be about 24.8 million MWh, up about 112% from the 1997quarter.

Natural Gas futures tumbled late in the trading session Tuesday,breaking momentarily below major support at $1.945, before settlingat $1.951. The nearly 15-cent slide exhibited by the Augustcontract comes on the heels of a nearly 3-week decline, leavingmany traders wondering if Tuesday’s big move lower was the end ofthe downtrend or one just picking up speed. Estimated volume of106,004 contracts favored the later.

The August Nymex contract probed lower yesterday but managed torebound before the close, bringing an end the price slide sincelast Thursday’s $2.425 high. Tuesday’s choppy trade left the spotmonth up 1.7 cents at $2.226 on the day. Despite the tight tradingrange and modest gain posted for the day, the session was anythingbut uneventful. Estimated volume confirmed the active market with53,327 contracts changing hands.

The primary factor contributing to energy trading room successis information, which comes before risk management and workplacecultural factors, according to a Saladin survey of energy traders.Traders told Saladin they are using more information and analysisthan they did a year ago. Saladin predicted a year ago thatInternet usage would outpace traders’ predictions, which theinformation provider found to be the case with its latest survey.Also as predicted, there is an increased focus on risk managementand integrated systems. Three-quarters of traders reportedincreased use of the Internet. More than 20% of trading roomsimplemented new risk management systems over the last year, andnearly a third of those surveyed noted advances in sophistication;in implementation of value at risk; and in systems, controls andprocedures.

Filings before the FERC relating to refund of ad valorem taxesimproperly collected by Kansas gas producers during the 1980squestion whether FERC’s authority overrules that of the statelegislature.

Follow-through buying took hold of Nymex trading early, and ledto new session highs before the closing bell last Friday as Julygained 9.9 cents to settle at $2.17. July gapped higher on the openafter coming into the day with solid momentum following Thursday’smodest gains in both the regular and ACCESS trading session. Julyopened at 2.115 Friday, already 4.4 cents above Thursday’s settle.A warming trend for both the weekend and extending into the 6-10day forecast in the South, coupled with some technical momentumwere universally cited as reasons for the strength.