Flat

After a two-day, 20-cent price drop to begin the week, thefutures market held its ground Wednesday as traders waited on thesidelines in anticipation of fresh supply and demand news releasedyesterday evening. By virtue of its 0.5-cent advance and higherhigh and lower low, yesterday’s session completed a bullish outsideup day on the daily charts. But despite the positive movement, thespot contract was unable to fill in a key chart gap up to $2.52.

Much like futures, swing price movement came to a nearstandstill Tuesday. Small declines of mostly less than 4 centstended to outweigh the few small scattered gains, but the overalleffect was pancake-like. Few areas were any more than moderatelychilly, and even the Upper Plains, where most Arctic cold frontsstart spreading into the U.S., was seeing temperatures in the 70s.Forecasters reported an absolutely featureless Atlantic stormoutlook.

A “comfort zone” was one trader’s description of the relativelyflat cash market over the last few days. And why not? After asummer chuck full of record setting temperatures and hurricanehype, supply and demand appear to have reached some semblance ofequilibrium. Many sellers saw their best prices early yesterdaybefore the market slipped lower in lackluster late morningdealings.

After testing both the upside and the downside during the firsthour of trading, the futures market chose the middle road yesterdayas many traders waited on the sidelines ahead of the weekly storagereport. As a result, the November contract did not stray very farfrom center and finished the session up 1.5 cents at $2.601.

Very mild softness was the dominant feature of the cash marketTuesday with a few points turning in basically flat showings.Others were off by up to a nickel. Prices started off near theirlow points but were able to rebound a few cents later in thetrading cycle, sources in the Gulf Coast and Rockies/Southwestsaid.

Storms and screen-those were the two big “S” words thatdominated trader conversations Monday. Yet despite weekend lossesof South Texas production to Hurricane Bret, more tropicaldisturbances lining up in the Atlantic and a spectacular push bythe September Henry Hub futures contract to finish above $3, cashprices found themselves hard-pressed to do much more than standtheir ground. Except for some small upticks in the West, mostpoints saw little if any price movement.

While for a third consecutive year U.S. gas reserves stood flatat around 107 Tcf, Canadian reserves grew 8% to 32.2 Tcf in 1998,according to Arthur Andersen. That’s just one finding of theconsultant’s 1999 edition of Global E&P Trends, released lastweek.

While for a third consecutive year U.S. gas reserves stood flatat around 107 Tcf, Canadian reserves grew 8% to 32.2 Tcf in 1998,according to Arthur Andersen. That’s just one finding of theconsultant’s 1999 edition of Global E&P Trends, releasedyesterday.

The chips are stale; the drinks are flat, and people areleaving. The New York Mercantile Exchange electricity futurescontracts aren’t very festive, and now the host is wondering whatit can do to liven up the party.