Either

Forecasts of peak temperatures remained on either side of 90 in the South, Northeast and Midwest, and they were even destined to reach the mid to upper 90s Tuesday in the Rockies. Cash traders shrugged their shoulders, however, and instead noted the previous Friday’s 6.3-cent drop by August futures and the weekend fade of any tropical storm threat to Gulf of Mexico output in sending prices slightly lower at most locations Monday.

Forecasts of high temperatures on either side of 90 in many regions and even greater in the South, Midcontinent and parts of the West revived the spot market by generally small amounts Thursday. A tropical wave was still too close to West Africa to be a factor, but the previous day’s 4.8-cent futures drop had essentially no impact as a negative guide for cash prices.

A federal judge in New Orleans said he would rule either Tuesday or Wednesday in a lawsuit by a group of oil service companies to reverse the six-month moratorium imposed by the federal government on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

Post-holiday heat forecasts and futures gain prove sufficient to rally most of the cash market.

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Bob Abbey will serve as acting director of the troubled Minerals Management Service (MMS), replacing Liz Birnbaum who either resigned on her own Thursday or was pushed out in the wake of the crude oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

The hot weather that had helped sustain moderate price increases during the previous two days was either already fading to some degree or about to do so in key northern market areas Thursday. The result was mixed price movement in trading for Friday flows, with mostly modest gains and losses close to evenly divided.

Senators will begin offering amendments this week to either strengthen or weaken provisions in the far-reaching legislation that would overhaul the federal financial regulatory system, Wall Street banking practices and the $600 trillion derivatives markets.

Moderate softness dominated a market in which most price movement saw little change either up or down from flat Thursday. A May futures increase of 3.9 cents a day earlier provided only meager support for cash numbers that appeared to be succumbing to an overall dearth of weather-related load instead of following the prior trading day’s screen lead as they have often done in the last week or so.

Moderate softness dominated a market in which most price movement saw little change either up or down from flat Thursday. A May futures increase of 3.9 cents a day earlier provided only meager support for cash numbers that appeared to be succumbing to an overall dearth of weather-related load instead of following the prior trading day’s screen lead as they have often done in the last week or so.