Fairly

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.

The futures market moved quietly higher in fairly subduedtrading on Friday until a round of position squaring and freshbuying boosted the market before the close. That was enough topropel the September contract above its recent trading range tosettle at $1.877, a 6-cent advance on the day.

September debuted as the spot Nymex contract Thursday in afairly uneventful fashion, by first trading briefly higher, beforelight selling pushed the market down to settle at $1.906, a 2.7cent loss for the day. Traders continue to point to the currentdowntrend that “exerts its influence on this market at every turn,”as a reason for the move lower. “[Thursday] there was not muchimpetus to move higher or lower, but the mentality in this marketcontinues to be buy little dips and sell the rest of the time,” atrader offered.

The New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) reported a fairlyactive first day of trading for the eastern electricity futurescontracts on Friday, with a total volume of 939 contracts traded.This, however, was 282 fewer contracts than the number tradedduring the first day of the western electricity contracts in 1996,a Nymex official said.