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Cash Prices continued their upward rally Tuesday, skyrocketingin excess of 20 cents at most delivery points. Most sources agreeda vigorous buying spree fueled by market players coming into theweek short in anticipation of lower prices was largely to blame forthe continued spikes in most areas.

A combination of stronger cash prices met with and conspiredwith constructive technical factors to lift the futures market forthe 4th straight day Tuesday. November managed a 5.9 cent rally tosettle at $2.202, but the big news of the day centered on the outmonths which posted similarly impressive advances, bringing the3-month strip up 6 cents. Estimated volume was a healthy 69, 463 onthe day.

After gapping lower at the open for the second day in a row,natural gas futures continued to free-fall in lackluster holidaytrading Monday. Weak cash market pricing and a quicklydeteriorating technical picture were cited as reasons for the10.2-cent decline in the November contract. By settling at $2.089,November has dropped over 30 cents in the last three tradingsessions.

Prices continued to deteriorate Tuesday for much the same reasonas in the previous couple of trading days: weather that’s cool butnot sufficiently cold to generate significant heating demand. Therewasn’t even much cooling load left in Texas after astorm-generating cold front that had knocked out phone service indowntown Tulsa for several hours Monday got as far south asHouston.

Cash prices continued to act like rampaging bulls as Octoberbegan Thursday. Double-digit increases of between 10 and 20 centswere the order of the day almost across the board as traders notedchilly weather in major northern market areas and the fact thatGulf of Mexico production, while nearly back to normal afterhurricane outages, still was missing a few hundred MMcf/d. At leasttwo big processing plants in southeast Louisiana remained shut downdue to storm damage. Cash also built on Wednesday’s big screenrun-up and initially higher futures prices Thursday. Even theNovember contract eventually wound up with a small loss, a traderpointed out.

Fresh off Wednesday’s advance the futures market looked poisedto continue higher Thursday as early buying prompted the market upat the open. However, a 25-cent gain in two days was more than eventhe greediest of bulls could handle, and the market reacted bytrending down. That left the November contract with a 1.9 cent lossto settle at $2.414 at the final bell.

Natural gas futures looked poised to continue to trend lowerlast Friday amid abundant physical supply and having justreestablished the downtrend that began on April 8th. However,weather forecasts calling for the warmest temperatures of thesummer and solid “bargain buying” in the cash market was enough tolift August 3.3 cents to settle at $2.165.

Cash was king for most of the month of June; oftentimes tradingat a premium to the Nymex futures contract. But that seems like adistant memory as cash prices shrugged off some of the season’shottest temperatures to slip, for the second day in a row, by up to5 cents almost across the board. While some traders expressedsurprise at the weakness, others said this is a sign the Nymexscreen is regaining control of market direction.

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.