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Outside of heat across the southern tier of states, the cash market could find little new fundamental support upon its emergence Tuesday from the holiday weekend. But due to spikes throughout the energy futures complex being ignited by further weekend violence in the Middle East, traders anticipate large gains in physical gas numbers Wednesday.

The cash market didn’t have far to go in seeking support for a broad-based rally Monday. It found backing in several areas: new spikes throughout the energy futures complex (which likely will be reflected in physical gas even more strongly Tuesday); a past-due surge of cooling load ranging from Texas and the lower Midcontinent through the Southeast and into the Mid-Atlantic; a major production outage in the Gulf of Mexico; and the usual restoration of industrial load that tends to get dampened over a weekend.

Scared off by the $6 psychological mark yet again, the natural gas futures prompt month tucked tail Friday as the June contract notched its second consecutive down day. After penetrating the $6 level in trading Wednesday, the June contract followed up its Thursday drop of 4.2 cents with a 6.2-cent loss on Friday to close at $5.862. The prompt month traded in the $5.850-5.970 range on light volume, with 48,826 contracts changing hands.

Unable to find a partner with liquidity and stature to boost its own, Dynegy Inc. on Wednesday redrew its entire business plan with the news that it would close its marketing and trading unit in the United States, Canada and Europe. The restructuring, which includes the loss of long-time COO Steve Bergstrom, changes the former market-maker into a more conservative entity, with four autonomous business units: power generation, natural gas liquids, regulated energy delivery and communication.

After dwelling in the mid $5.70s for most of the day, May futures were able to find some traction in afternoon trading, climbing up to a $5.83 high before settling at $5.809, up half a cent from Monday’s close. The second consecutive negligible day of trading came as little surprise to market-watchers, who had noted that trading this week was expected to be light due to religious holidays and spring break vacations (see Daily GPI, April 6). Volume on the day was 34,541.

Pressured by weakness in the Sunday night Access trading session, the natural gas futures market turned lower Monday in sympathy with losses in the crude oil market and amid bearish short-term technical factors. However, chilly temperatures and stronger Northeast cash prices was enough to slow the downside momentum, leaving the April market with a modest 3.6-cent decline and $5.546 close.

Ever since Enron crashed and a wave of related negative events came down on the gas industry, there have been concerns about the health and even the fate of the gas spot market. But trying to take the spot market’s pulse isn’t easy. In fact to do it with any accuracy is darn near impossible, according to several market experts.

Ever since Enron crashed and a wave of related negative events came down on the gas industry, there have been concerns about the health and even the fate of the gas spot market. But trying to take the spot market’s pulse isn’t easy. In fact to do it with any accuracy is darn near impossible, according to several market experts.

After a complete pullback following the energy merchant sector meltdown of two years ago, the power industry’s dramatic earnings and valuation swings in recent years have led many companies to again reset their priorities, according to a study released Thursday at Cambridge Energy Research Associates’ CERAWeek 2004 in Houston.