Apparently Tuesday’s general flatness was just the cash market’s way of taking a breather, because prices were back on an upward track Wednesday. With some exceptions, such as mild Rockies softness and small upticks at a few other points, the gains were remarkably consistent throughout most of the market at 10-20 cents or so.
Flatness
Articles from Flatness
Rockies/San Juan Rally Stands Out Amid General Flatness
Much like the week started, mostly flat numbers with a mild tendency to the upside were predominant in most market areas Wednesday. No longer constrained on injections by a partial-day outage of Questar’s Clay Basin storage facility (see Daily GPI, April 14), Rockies/San Juan pricing rebounded from Tuesday’s weakness but in most cases failed to regain as much as it had lost.
Rockies/San Juan Dives Stand Out in Flat Market
Triple-digit plunges in the Rockies and San Juan Basin were greatly conspicuous among general flatness elsewhere in Wednesday’s trading. Only rarely did non-Rockies/San Juan points stray more than a few pennies up or down from unchanged as most of the nation was expected to continue seeing a mix of belated winter and springlike weather through at least Tuesday.
Western Gains Contrast With Overall Mild Softness
Flatness or small declines of about a nickel or less dominated the market Wednesday. Sharply higher San Juan/Rockies numbers, along with mild firmness at Northern California points, constituted the primary exceptions to the overall price trend.
Northeast, FL Citygate Spikes Stand Out Amid Flatness
Although this week’s winter siege likely was reaching its maximum area of penetration Wednesday, for the most part it had lost much of its price-boosting power. Except for big advances by Florida citygates and some citygates in the Northeast, the rest of the cash market had settled down for a generally flat performance, with scattered points showing 1 to 5 cent increases.
Flatness Again Dominates as Weather Tends to Cool
A slightly more positive set of weather fundamentals kept flat numbers dominant in weekend trading Friday. There was a slight bias toward the downside, but few points fell by more than 1-2 cents.
Mild Morning Screen Firmness Helps Cash Level Off
Flatness dominated the cash market Wednesday as most points showed little price movement and the remaining small increases and decreases tended to cancel each other out. If anything, however, there was a slight bias to the downside. Most of the upticks were in the West, while Gulf Coast and Northeast points saw more of the larger downticks.
Prices Fly in Different Directions, But Are Mostly Flat
Much of the cash market “followed the screen” essentially nowhere as flatness dominated at a majority of points Thursday. However, there were pockets of price movement here and there. The Northeast and PG&E-related California points weakened by as much as the teens, while San Juan/Rockies/Pacific Northwest quotes rose by a nickel or more. In addition, several scattered Gulf Coast and Midcontinent points defied the overall flat trend with upticks or downticks of up to a dime.
Only Pacific Northwest Avoids Overall Weekend Softness
So much for those who expected Thursday’s general flatness toremain in vogue for a while. Chilly Pacific Northwest points(Sumas, Stanfield and Kingsgate) constituted the only regionalmarket where flat quotes continued to prevail Friday, whileelsewhere most prices ranged from mildly lower to down about 20cents. California again registered much greater declines than theoverall market.
Some Expect Price Flatness to Continue for a While
Prices tended to flatten out in most cases Thursday, and severalsources believe that barring any drastic weather changes, themarket is due for more sideways trading for at least the next fewdays.