Direction

Feeding off positive momentum from Wednesday’s active tradingsession, natural gas futures trundled higher yesterday as tradersgauged the persistent issues of storage and weather. And while thatfollow-through was enough to boost the prompt January contract up7.4 cents to $2.064 for the day, 4 cents of that was notched in theWednesday night Access session, leaving some bulls to suggest thatyesterday’s movement was disappointing.

MCN Energy Group said it is planning a new direction for itspreviously released strategic plan that will emphasize steadygrowth in core operations, more predictable earnings and moderatecapital investments.

Traders’ opinions have varied as to the direction the futuresmarket would take this week, and so it came as no surprise Mondaywhen it tested both the upside and the downside in early trading.But, when selling dried up below the $2.10 level, the Novembercontract was free to migrate higher to settle at $2.143.

The futures market concluded the week on a quiet note Friday asneither bulls nor bears were able to influence a move in theirfavor. After a lower open the November contract quickly filtereddown, filling in the chart gap to $2.35. But the $2.35 level held,and the market was left to trend higher into the closing bell. TheNovember contract settled at $2.432, a 1.8-cent gain on the day.

Prices began the week with a mixed performance Monday. Flatnesswas dominant at most points, with small drops outweighing smallgains at others. Mild weather throughout much of the nation lent nofundamental support to gas demand. However, sources saw a goodchance for at least modest increases today based on Monday’sfutures uptick.

Taking its name and direction from its unregulated subsidiary,Washington Water Power announced Monday it will be cutting itsdividend by 61% and putting the money saved into growing allaspects of its business. The aim is to grow “a bigger and strongercompany” and the second priority is speed, the company’s newchairman and CEO Tom Matthews said.

The cash market continued to muddle around with essentially nodirection for a second straight day Friday, leaving weekend numbersmostly unchanged. The few drops of about a nickel occurred atWestern points-intra-Alberta, Stanfield, Malin and SouthernCalifornia border-and chiefly resulted from the lifting of supplyand/or transportation constraints that allowed more gas back intothe market.