Digit

The swing market kept falling Friday, but outside of continuedtriple-digit plunges in California, the softness was generallymild. The Southwest basins and Rockies joined a few scatteredMidcontinent and Gulf Coast points in declines of about 15 cents ormore, but otherwise the downticks were about a dime or less.

Except for continued triple-digit spikes in California, theprice rally that began in trading for the weekend appeared to berunning out of steam quickly Monday. Non-California gains rangedfrom barely above flat to nearly 60 cents at Stanfield; most wereless than 15 cents.

Prices continued to soar Tuesday but generally by smalleramounts than on Monday in the Gulf Coast, Midcontinent/Midwest,Appalachia and Southwest/Rockies. However, bigger gains at thefrigid Northeast citygates allowed them to join California and thePacific Northwest in measuring average pricing in four digits.

While not plunging quite as steeply as the day before, pricesfor the weekend continued to record double-digit declines Friday.There was considerably more consistency across all markets than onThursday as virtually all points fell between 15 cents and about aquarter.

Following on the heels of Thursday’s losses, natural gas futuresgapped lower on the open Friday as traders took profits on theirlong positions in sympathy with similar selling in the crude oilpit. October crude finished down 5% on the day at $33.63 per bblwhile October natural gas slipped 2.4% to close at $4.880. OPEC wasscheduled to meet over the weekend in Vienna to discuss possibleproduction increases (check back with http://intelligencepress.comfor breaking news later Monday morning).

Most points experienced double-digit price declines Monday,depressed by lower energy futures and continuing mild weather inthe key Midwest and Northeast market areas.

With temperatures dropping considerably out of theirtriple-digit-heat conditions on Friday, California energy officialsbegan assessing the economic and operating impact of rotatingblackouts in numerous San Francisco Bay Area neighborhoods lastWednesday and the curtailment Thursday of 135 large industrialcustomers in Sacramento and Stockton totaling 300 MW.

With temperatures dropping considerably out of theirtriple-digit-heat conditions on Friday, California energy officialsbegan assessing the economic and operating impact of rotatingblackouts in numerous San Francisco Bay Area neighborhoods lastWednesday and the curtailment Thursday of 135 large industrialcustomers in Sacramento and Stockton totaling 300 MW.

Swing trading for the last day of November saw prices rising bydouble-digit amounts at nearly every point Monday except in theRockies. The fact that post-holiday temperatures had grownconsiderably colder in the East were a partial factor in theincreases; however, sources said it were the avoidance of payingeven higher November cash-out prices to the pipelines that wasprimarily behind the incremental push higher.