Dollar

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.

Obscured somewhat by the multi-billion-dollar PG&E bankruptcy, the utility’s updated natural gas transmission/storage market structure (Gas Accord 2) was approved last month by California regulators, keeping in place most of the same unbundled framework of the past five years.

Obscured somewhat by the multi-billion-dollar PG&E bankruptcy, the utility’s updated natural gas transmission/storage market structure (Gas Accord 2) was approved last month by state regulators, keeping in place pretty much the same unbundled framework of the past five years.

After etching a dramatic six-day, one-dollar price slide, the natural gas futures market rebounded modestly Tuesday as bargain buying entered the fray. With short-range weather forecasts unchanged and fresh storage data still a day out, market watchers agreed that the uptick was due to the market’s perception that sub-$5.00 might be a good purchase should this winter turn out anything like last winter.

While the Chapter 11 Enron Corp. bankruptcy drama with tens of billions of dollar at stake ever-so slowly unfolds in a New York City bankruptcy court, in the Pacific Northwest Portland General Electric (PGE), the only utility owned by Enron, operates with solid financial footing, but an increasingly shaky political foundation that is testing the $2 billion utility’s mettle. PGE has reached out to state lawmakers in an attempt to hold off city officials who are trying to force a municipal takeover of the utility.

Following declines of nearly a dollar last week, the natural gas futures market shuffled sideways in lackluster trading Monday. With weather forecasts continuing to call for mild temperatures, bull traders had little on which to mount an offensive. Meanwhile, the possibility for a third-straight record-setting storage injection gas has bears looking for further price declines this week.

Big rebounds in the vicinity of a dollar at San Juan/Rockies points and moderate declines in the Northeast were the primary diversions Monday from overall flatness in the rest of the cash market, in which most points were less than a nickel up or down from unchanged.

After three days of hyper-volatility and multi-dollar price swings, natural gas futures exhibited some semblance of normalcy Thursday as prices climbed higher in the morning on fresh gas storage data only to ebb lower in afternoon trading. With that, April completed it first day as prompt month at Nymex with a relatively uneventful 9.5-cent gain and $7.485 close.

Ending a five-day, one-dollar price spike, natural gas futures filtered lower Tuesday as traders alleviated overbought conditions and hedged against the possibility of a smaller-than-expected storage withdrawal report Thursday. Cash prices and crude oil futures, both of which have been supportive lately, turned lower Tuesday, pulling the natural gas futures market along with it.