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Coming off of a week that saw mostly single digit drops or gains, the Nymex May natural gas futures contract jumped out of the box Monday, closing 19.3 cents higher to settle at $5.764. The June contract also went on a run, climbing 21.8 cents to close at $5.871.

Prices continued to drift lower at nearly all points Thursday, but the rate of decline slowed. Whereas double-digit drops had ruled the market Wednesday, most of Thursday’s softening was by less than a dime. Minuscule losses of only 2-3 cents were scattered through several market areas, and Northwest’s domestic and Sumas points managed to stay flat and eke out a small gain respectively.

Small single-digit advances dominated the market Monday as (1) industrial demand picked up again after the holiday weekend, (2) futures remained supportive of physical prices and (3) a cold front invading the Midwest from Canada late last week had spread southward to Texas and eastward into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

Market dynamics were as tumultuous as ever Monday astriple-digit gains from the Rockies/Southwest eastward were insharp contrast to huge declines at most California and PacificNorthwest points. In that latter group only the Southern Californiaborder, which notched yet another price record at $69, achieved anadvance in price average, and even it was plunging as “low” as $30near deadline.

Prices were surging again Wednesday in mostly double-digit advances. Traders mentioned late-season storage buying and substitution of gas-fired generation during nuclear plant outages as having minor roles in the bullishness, but for most, it was a case of “following the screen.”

In concert with double-digit cash market losses, natural gas futures slipped lower Friday as a fair number of sellers waited until the last 30 minutes of trading to shed their long positions. The expiring October contract was hardest hit by the selling, dropping 11.2 cents for the session to its final resting place at $4.43.

Most points were seeing small, single-digit gains Thursday, but there was also a sprinkling of flat to moderately lower price showings. Prospects for the weekend market were unclear. The slow but steady advance of the most powerful hurricane since 1998 weighed in favor of bullishness, but it was arrayed against both a negative futures reaction to an anticipated big storage injection report and the near-disappearance of air conditioning load outside the desert Southwest and parts of the South.

Prices were rising again Tuesday in mostly double-digit amounts, deriving support from a third straight day of screen firmness, a tropical wave nearing the eastern Caribbean Sea and substantial cooling load lingering in the West and South. Then the tropical wave’s promotion to Tropical Storm Claudette that afternoon seemed to assure that quotes would keep going up Wednesday and possibly beyond, according to several sources.

Breaking the string of triple-digit weekly storage refills at four, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) Thursday morning announced a 97 Bcf injection for the week ending June 27. Natural gas futures prices, which were already in the process of a cautious short-covering rally, used the smaller-than-expected refill as a springboard to higher levels. But after a quick spike to an intra-day high at $5.36, the August contract was hit with a steady barrage of selling late Thursday morning and early afternoon. August closed mixed at $5.226, 2.7 cents higher in Thursday’s holiday-abbreviated trading session.