Finally

Before leaving for the holidays Thursday, the Senate finally got around to confirming former Iowa regulator John Norris to FERC. The move all but guarantees that the Commission will not run into quorum problems in the New Year.

The cash market finally bowed to futures weakness by falling at nearly all points Thursday despite some increases in heating load due Friday. Even with low temperatures predicted to reach sub-freezing levels at some locations in the northern sections of the South, it appeared that many buyers preferred to start tapping their storage accounts rather than procure more expensive spot gas.

The market finally had to acknowledge the fact that its large gains that dominated the first three trading days of the week lacked validating support from generally moderate weather fundamentals. Also feeling highly negative guidance from previous day’s futures loss of 27.6 cents, cash prices fell by double-digit amounts across the board Thursday.

After a string of nearly all gains previously in the week, cash prices finally succumbed Friday to generally moderate weather-based demand and the previous day’s futures dip of 15.3 cents. Quotes were down at all points but one. The weekend decline of industrial load added to the general bearishness.

After finally breaking through to settle above $5 earlier, November natural gas futures gave it all back late last week to close nearly unchanged from the previous week’s finish. The prompt-month contract on Friday closed at $4.787, down 16 cents from Thursday but six-tenths of a penny higher than the previous week’s finish.

With a little extra push from the previous day’s prompt-month futures decline of 6.9 cents, the cash market finally acknowledged Wednesday that based on generally subpar cooling load in many areas, its moderate strength in the first two days of the week had largely been defying the law of price gravity.

After appearing to ignore bearish weather fundamentals in registering price gains at all or nearly all points for nearly a week and a half, the cash market had finally shown signs of cracking Wednesday with mostly small losses at a majority of points. The price dam broke Thursday as substantive double-digit losses occurred across the board.

Natural gas futures bulls finally received some sorely needed support Thursday morning after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that a slightly larger than expected 30 Bcf withdrawal from natural gas storage was recorded for the week ended March 13. April natural gas futures shot nearly 75 cents higher immediately following the report’s release before closing out the regular session at $4.174, up 49 cents from Wednesday’s close.

Extreme cold in the East finally translated into a stout natural gas storage withdrawal report, but it appears some traders were expecting an even larger number as near-month natural gas futures fell following the 10:30 a.m. EST report Friday. The February contract put in a new low for this downtrend on Friday before closing at $4.518, down 16.3 cents from Thursday’s finish and 28.3 cents lower than the previous week’s close.