Dipped

El Paso Corp. dipped into the energy well and named Douglas L. Foshee, 44, the new CEO on Wednesday. Foshee, former CEO of Nuevo Energy Co., has been Halliburton’s COO since last March.

Allegheny Energy Inc. last week said that its common equity ratio has dipped below the level required under certain key Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) authorizations, forcing the power company to obtain further SEC authorizations to engage in financing and other activities that are critical to its near-term financial viability.

Following an impressive eight-day, 60-cent rally, natural gas prices dipped Tuesday as traders grappled with the first bearish weather forecast in more than a month. The September contract closed at $3.166, down 10.1 cents on the day and just 0.6 cents above its low for the session. Estimated volume was heavy, with 109,501 contracts changing hands.

Natural gas futures dipped then rallied Wednesday afternoon, as bulls and bears were caught in a tug-of-war on the news that 111 Bcf was pulled from underground storage facilities last week. With that, March completed its debut as prompt month at $2.08, up 1.3 cents for the session and 5 cents off its $2.03 low notched just 20 minutes prior at 2:10 p.m. EST. Estimated volume was average at 80,499.

Looking like the readout on an EKG machine gone mad, natural gasfutures soared, dipped then rallied again yesterday as tradersdealt with a bevy of somewhat contradictory but certainly confusingpieces of fundamental news. With Wednesday’s 25.9-cent advance and$4.073 settle, the June contract climbed into the rarified air of$4.05-plus prices, which have been achieved only in seven othertrading sessions during the 10-year history of natural gas futures.

Williams share prices dipped nearly 5% to $40.88/share yesterdayfollowing an announcement that the company expects third quarterearnings per share to be “substantially below” current Wall Streetestimates of 20 cents/share. The company said a change inaccounting standards and cooler than normal temperatures inSouthern California, its major power sales area, were to blame. Theannouncement was made partly in preparation for WilliamsCommunications’ initial public offering next month.

For the second trading session in a row yesterday the Maycontract dipped lower at the open, but was unable to completelyfill in the chart created between last Wednesday’s $2.18 high andThursday’s $2.20 low. And once that early selling pressure driedup, the market was free to rally on waves of buying by both localand commercial traders. The May contract pressed higher throughoutthe session, spiking above the $2.30 level at the closing bellbefore settling at $2.299, a 7.3-cents advance on the day. Atechnical difficulty at Nymex last night suspended the after-hourscomputer-only Access trading session.

For the second day in a row Thursday, natural gas futures dippedand rallied within a wide trading band. But in contrast toWednesday’s late price falloff, trading yesterday featured ashort-covering rally before the close that lifted the Januarycontract to its $1.959 settlement price.