Driver

After a choppy week of range-bound trading, bulls foundthemselves in the driver’s seat Friday at the New York MercantileExchange when weather forecasts and technical factors came intoagreement. Given the opportunity it didn’t take long forspeculators, comprised mostly of local traders, to become buyers inan attempt to push the August contract through resistance tobuy-stop orders that they knew were waiting in the $2.21-22 area.However, what they failed to realize was that there wasconsiderable commercial selling waiting there as well, it proved tobe more than enough to satiate the buying demand. The Augustcontract notched a $2.225 high shortly after 1 p.m. (EST) only tocome crashing back to settle at $2.187, an 0.8-cent advance for thesession.

All sources were on the same page Tuesday regarding what waspushing cash prices upward. “Blame the screen,” they chorused,because there weren’t any fundamentals around at which to point.Just about every point was up between 10 and 15 cents, except forintra-Alberta increases of a little over a nickel.

Hot weather appeared to be the primary driver of gas pricesMonday. When you’ve got it, as regions from the Rockies westwarddid, quotes went up by about a nickel at many points; when youdon’t have it, as the relatively balmy Midwest and Northeast marketareas didn’t, prices were flat to down as much as 7 cents.