Eased

Despite undeniably bearish medium-range weather forecasts, natural gas futures eased only slightly Friday as traders were hesitant to short the market for fear they would receive a bullish surprise Monday morning.

Because of market area rain that eased a low-linepack condition, Florida Gas Transmission lifted Wednesday an Overage Alert Day notice that had declared Monday. An El Paso low-linepack OFO remained in effect.

Federal government prognosticators last week reported thatdemand for natural gas will slow considerably during 2001, but spotgas prices nevertheless are expected to remain lofty throughoutmuch of the year in the face of tight gas inventories.

Federal government prognosticators this week reported thatdemand for natural gas will slow considerably during 2001, but spotgas prices nevertheless are expected to remain lofty throughoutmuch of the year in the face of tight gas inventories.

After trading up to, but not through, stubborn resistanceMonday, natural gas futures eased yesterday as fund tradersliquidated a portion of their long positions amid bearish technicalconditions and ahead of warming temperatures expected in theNortheast U.S later this week.

Following Thursday’s remarkable 27-cent spike, natural gasprices eased Friday at the New York Mercantile Exchange as tradersrolled out of near-month October contracts in favor of wintermonths. While the October contract finished down 6.7 cents, theloss was much less severe for November, which closed down 1.5cents. December and January 2000 contracts resisted the downturnaltogether, notching gains of 4 cents and 2.2 cents respectively.