Coldest

With an arctic air mass poised to deliver what The Weather Channel called “some of the coldest weather the region has experienced in a year or two” into the Northeast Thursday, several citygates there saw huge spikes in Wednesday trading. Transco’s Zone 6-New York City pool saw a top quote of $30 as the point’s average soared by more than $11 to just over $20.

After nailing two weeks ago in his forecast that New England would receive a large arctic push last week (see Daily GPI, Jan. 7), Joe Bastardi, senior meteorologist for AccuWeather.com, said Tuesday that the region is not out of the woods yet.

Buoyed by the coldest air thus far this season, the natural gas futures market turned higher Wednesday as weak shorts covered their positions. Cash prices, which were up nearly 75 cents at some locations, were also seen as a price supportive factor, traders agreed. The December contract received the biggest buying boost, up 17 cents at $4.897. At 59,166, estimated volume was very light considering the size of the price hike.

Buoyed by a flow date that several sources expect to be the coldest yet in the East this winter, an approaching return of severe weather in the South, and a strong screen rebound, cash prices recorded across-the-board increases Wednesday.

Despite the arrival of some of the coldest air in several years across much of the eastern half of the country, natural gas futures prices fell Tuesday as traders learned that moderating temperatures are forecast in some medium-range weather outlooks.

Despite the gains in the nearby crude oil pit and ahead of the coldest air expected thus far this season, natural gas futures tumbled lower Friday as weak longs headed for the exits ahead of the weekend and the December expiry Tuesday.

Here today; gone tomorrow was the prevailing mentality in thefutures arena yesterday when the coldest temperatures of the yearwere more than offset by forecasts calling for a warm-up by earlynext week. And as has been the case for most of the month, it wascash prices that not only led the way for the futures market, butalso notched a larger change on the day-where the January contracttrickled down, 2.2 cents to settle at $1.925, cash prices sank by adime on many pipes.