Fairly

Only a couple of Western Canadian points where temperatures were staying fairly mild got left out of heat-driven gains at all other locations Monday. The previous Friday’s advance of 9.6 cents by September futures gave an added boost to the cash market.

After trading in another fairly tight trading range of 15 cents on Tuesday, the August natural gas futures contract ended the regular session up 8 cents at $4.590 as traders monitored warmer-than-normal temperatures and some storm activity in the tropics.

In fairly muted summer trading, natural gas futures traders began this week much as they had last week as the August contract traveled a narrow 10-cent range before closing the regular session slightly lower. The prompt-month contract stayed between $4.454 and $4.555 before finishing at $4.510, down nine-tenths of a penny from last Friday’s close.

Sticking to a fairly tight trading range for a second consecutive session, August natural gas futures on Tuesday traded between $4.334 and $4.487 before closing the day at $4.354, down 3.4 cents from Monday’s close.

Nearly all of the cash market again saw substantive upticks Tuesday, drawing support from a 22.5-cent spike by July futures a day earlier and a fairly large amount of cooling demand from hot weather across most of the southern half of the U.S. Although chances of storm development were being discounted, some traders may have considered a low-pressure area in the Atlantic Ocean as an additional bullish factor.

After taking dives a day earlier, Northeast citygates rebounded by fairly substantive amounts Wednesday as blizzard conditions continued to rage from the Mid-Atlantic though southern New England. However, nearly all of the rest of the cash market was flat to nearly 15 cents lower as the wintry weather penetrating a great deal of North America failed to have much impact on most prices.

After taking dives a day earlier, Northeast citygates rebounded by fairly substantive amounts Wednesday as blizzard conditions continued to rage from the Mid-Atlantic though southern New England. However, nearly all of the rest of the cash market was flat to nearly 15 cents lower as the wintry weather penetrating a great deal of North America failed to have much impact on most prices.

Although Northeast delivery prices continued to sink by fairly large amounts Wednesday, gains in the rest of the market were getting larger again as a new blast of arctic cold is anticipated in many areas before the weekend.

December natural gas futures showed some comfort with its current price level a day ahead of expiration as the contract traded in a fairly slim 17.4-cent range before closing out Monday’s regular session at $4.473, up 4.9 cents from Friday’s finish.