Erasing

Erasing last week’s significant gains, November natural gas futures soared higher Monday as traders chose to focus on near-term cold instead of the recently released forecasts calling for mild temperatures this winter. November natural gas jumped 78.5 cents, or 13.87% over Friday’s close, to settle at $6.444 Monday.

A lawyer representing the estate of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay last week filed a motion to begin the process of erasing Lay’s felony convictions for securities and bank fraud. Lay, 64, who was scheduled to be sentenced in October, suffered a heart attack and died in July (see NGI, July 10).

A lawyer representing the estate of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay on Wednesday filed a motion to begin the process of erasing Lay’s felony convictions for securities and bank fraud. Lay, 64, who was scheduled to be sentenced in October, suffered a heart attack and died in July (see Daily GPI, July 6).

Erasing any question about the market forming a top earlier this week, September natural gas futures on Wednesday afternoon soared to new levels. Taking a cue from the rampaging petroleum complex, the natural gas prompt month broke through the psychological $9 level to trade at a high of $9.09, and that was in the last two minutes of the regular session.

Erasing the past three days of losses in one fell swoop, October natural gas futures went out with a bang on Tuesday, expiring up 46.1 cents at $5.723. Many industry watchers attributed the skyrocket higher to longer than expected Hurricane Ivan-related shut-ins in the Gulf of Mexico (see related story) as well as sympathy with November crude futures, which notched a $50.20/bbl high on the day. Volume was especially heavy on the day as 108,953 contracts changed hands.

The producer who expected Midcontinent prices to be back aroundNovember indexes “fairly soon” (see Daily GPI, Nov. 3) didn’t havelong to wait. In fact, he underestimated the cash market as biggains across the board-except for intra-Alberta-Tuesday carriednearly all points back to index levels or higher. Rises between 15and 35 cents dominated the market.

Like an immovable object the downtrend weighed on the futuresmarket again on Thursday, completely erasing advances made earlierin the week. That left the September contract down 4.2 cents to$1.831, but more importantly the prompt month continues to plodtoward substantive support in the $1.78-81 area, causing tradersto wonder if that level will hold or be merely a speed bump.