Continuance

Cash prices took a hard fall across the board Friday, weighed down by a 46.5-cent prior-day futures plunge, the continuance of relatively light cooling load outside the southern U.S. (including the Midcontinent and Rockies) and the loss of industrial demand during a weekend.

The continuance of heavy heating load and a major prior-day screen spike were sufficient to propel prices further upward at most points Friday. However, prospects for a bit of moderation in cold weather in several areas, the typical slump of industrial demand over a weekend and the easing or lifting of OFOs and similar pipeline constraints (see Transportation Notes) allowed a few instances of flat or softer numbers to remain in the market.

Feeding on the midweek renewal or continuance of cold weather in several market areas, prices kept rising Wednesday at nearly all points. A few Northeast citygates that were flat to a little over 15 cents lower were the only deviations from overall upticks ranging from about a nickel to 45 cents.

As expected, the cash market used the bullish futures reactionto Wednesday afternoon’s storage report as a springboard foracross-the-board gains of about a dime or more Thursday. But a latescreen retreat, continued lack of cooling load in northern marketareas and the usual dropoff in weekend demand raised doubts aboutany further increases today.