Contrasting

Alleviating overbought conditions, natural gas futures sifted lower Friday as traders took profits ahead of the three-day holiday weekend. By checking down to its $5.44 low for the session, the February contract filled in a key level on the charts. It closed at $5.536, down 10.9 cents for the session. Estimated volume was light in Friday’s abbreviated session.

After erupting to a new high for the week on the heels of an undeniably bullish inventory report Thursday morning, natural gas futures dropped to a new low for the week Thursday afternoon as traders priced in the latest forecasts calling for mild weather for the first quarter of 2003. The January contract took the selling squarely on the chin, dropping nearly 44.3 cents off its high for the day and 23.1 cents off Wednesday’s close to finish at $5.047. In doing so, it settled beneath the February 2003 contract ($5.073) for the first time.

All-around price increases Wednesday received support fromcontrasting weather conditions and rising power generation load(plus a tiny assist from a barely higher screen). Most upticks werein the neighborhood of 4-8 cents, although smaller ones were aslittle as two cents at the PG&E citygate.