Cooler

Prices managed to eke out more mostly small gains Thursday in decidedly non-volatile trading as weather support continued to turn slightly more bullish. A few scattered points turned in essentially flat performances. Nearly all of the gains were in single digits, but they ranged to a little more than 20 cents in the Rockies, where some of the coldest U.S. temperatures — and even a bit of snow — currently reside.

Bullied by the one-two combination of cooler weather forecasts and speculative fund buying, the natural gas futures market accelerated higher Tuesday in a session marked by light activity and choppy trading action.

Absorbing the impact of a cooler than normal spring, Consolidated Edison Inc. reported net income for the second quarter of 2003 of $66 million or 29 cents a share, compared with earnings of $98 million or 46 cents a share, for the second quarter of 2002. The company added that the weather’s impact in 2Q2003 accounted for an estimated 6 cent reduction per share when compared to 2Q2002.

Tropical Storm Bertha, which made landfall in southeastern Louisiana Monday morning before being downgraded to a tropical depression, had no impact on production and provided no impetus for the September natural gas futures contract to stage a rally. Instead, September plunged sharply lower at the open and proceeded to bust through prior support in the high $2.70s before resting at $2.678 at the end of the day, the lowest level on the spot continuation chart since the first week in March.

The cash market remained in mild softening mode for the most part Thursday. Nearly all points ranged from barely a couple of pennies higher to down about a nickel, with small declines predominating. Transco Zone 6-NYC remained the price leader, but it recorded Thursday’s biggest drop of about 30 cents as traders anticipated a weekend cooldown. California also tended to see larger downticks than other markets.

Cooler weather moving into the Midwest and due to approach the Northeast over the weekend, along with a softer screen and the usual dropoff in weekend demand, pushed cash prices lower Friday. However, the downturn was fairly moderate in the East, where most points fell by less than a dime and other drops were between a dime and 15 cents.

In a frenetic trading session that had even the most seasonedtraders on their toes, gas futures gapped higher on the open onlyto crumble lower in two distinct selling waves yesterday. Incontrast to Wednesday session that saw almost uniform increases,Thursday’s price action for the 12-month strip was inconsistent,with losses in the out months outpacing the 7.7-cent declineregistered in the prompt month. The March contract finished at$6.158.

Boosted by soaring cash prices and cooler temps both outsidetraders’ windows and in the latest weather forecasts, natural gasfutures were higher Monday after gains registered in the Sundaynight Access trading session were validated by a gap higher open.The December contract was the largest beneficiary of the Sundayevening-Monday morning buying frenzy, finishing up 24.2 cents at$5.698. Meanwhile the back months lagged considerably, evidenced bythe 12-month strip, which only advanced 8.2 cents to $4.826.

As cooler-than-normal temperatures statewide reduced peak-powerdemand to winter levels, California last week was awash in proposedsolutions to its electricity price and supply problems, which arelikely to be much more severe next summer.