Dominating

Summer will end with cooler-than-normal temperatures dominating the East, a trend that is expected to carry over through October, but high temperatures will keep their grip on the central United States, according to forecasters at Andover, MA-based Weather Services International (WSI).

Hardly any area can claim to be as much as “warm” any more, but generally seasonable temperatures dominating the near- to intermediate-term weather outlook early in the fledgling heating season resulted in dropping prices across the board Friday. The weekend decline of industrial demand and the bearish nature of the previous day’s storage report were additional market depressants.

The cash market proved to be more resilient than expected Friday. Despite cool to merely warm forecasts dominating in most areas, the expiration-day drop of 5.3 cents by June futures a day earlier and the extra loss of industrial demand over a long holiday weekend, prices remained near flat in most cases and rose at several locations.

Moderate to cool conditions were still dominating the overall forecasts, and as a couple of sources had pointed out, Thursday’s 24.8-cent screen plunge “practically guaranteed” lower prices Friday. They were correct as quotes fell across the board from about C5 cents to 30 cents or so; all drops were in double digits except for those at Empress and NOVA Inventory Transfer in Western Canada.

Traders on Tuesday continued to look past the current cold and stormy spell that is dominating the eastern half of the United States as the March natural gas futures contract continued to probe lower values. The prompt-month contract reached a low of $5.262 before closing the day’s regular session at $5.290, down 11.1 cents from Monday’s finish.

Traders on Tuesday continued to look past the current cold and stormy spell that is dominating the eastern half of the United States as the March natural gas futures contract continued to probe lower values. The prompt-month contract reached a low of $5.262 before closing the day’s regular session at $5.290, down 11.1 cents from Monday’s finish.

With warming trends due to be under way Wednesday in some key market areas and seasonal to above-normal temperatures dominating the overall weather outlook, prices fell at nearly all points Tuesday. As on the day before, changes were generally small with few exceeding a dime except in the Northeast, where citygates tended to soften by amounts roughly similar to those by which they had risen on Monday.

Price movement was mixed Monday, with gains dominating slightly in the Gulf Coast but the rest of the market mostly softer. Except for triple-digit plunges in the Rockies, in most cases points did not stray very far up or down from flat. Forecasts of colder post-holiday weather in most of the East early this week were proving to be overstated, and the storage report-driven spike of 49.2 cents last Wednesday had little impact in supporting most cash trading points.

Thursday’s cash market largely resembled the one a day earlier, with mild softness dominating in the East outside the Midcontinent and the West and Midcontinent continuing to see mostly strong increases. The primary differences were that virtually all western points advanced Thursday, and there were several flat to slightly higher locations in the Gulf Coast and at Midwest and Northeast citygates.