Following

The merger of Commonwealth Edison of Chicago parent Unicom Corp.and Philadelphia-based PECO Energy Co. will create a company so bigit will take two CEOs to run it, at least initially.

Following a five-day, 30-cent price drop, the natural gasfutures market dug in its claws Friday as scale-down industrialbuyers found good value in winter gas prices. Gaining 6.2 cents tofinish at $2.608 the October contract was only the tip of theiceberg. Led by the December contract, which was up 7.7 cents to$2.974, the winter strip (Nov.-Mar.) posted an impressive 5.6-centgain.

Following a spectacular, 24-cent price spike Thursday, thenatural gas futures market cooled its heels Friday as traders tookprofits rather than spend the weekend long. That allowed theOctober contract to sift a nickel lower to $2.801 in an active114,602-volume session.

Enbridge Gas New Brunswick, Canada, won a 20-year renewablefranchise to develop a gas distribution system for the province ofNew Brunswick. The award was made by the provincial governmentfollowing evaluation of competitive bids submitted earlier thisyear. Enbridge Gas New Brunswick is a joint venture betweenEnbridge Inc., with a 63% interest, and 28 local New Brunswickinvestors.

Williams share prices dipped nearly 5% to $40.88/share yesterdayfollowing an announcement that the company expects third quarterearnings per share to be “substantially below” current Wall Streetestimates of 20 cents/share. The company said a change inaccounting standards and cooler than normal temperatures inSouthern California, its major power sales area, were to blame. Theannouncement was made partly in preparation for WilliamsCommunications’ initial public offering next month.

September prices were a little lower following the weekend, butsome sources saw something of a yo-yo effect with quotes regaininga penny or two in the afternoon as the October screen managed toachieve a small advance. A buyer at the Chicago citygate said hisdeals averaged just over $2.90 on Friday and just under $2.90 onMonday.

Adding to late session advances made in both regular and Accesstrading sessions Tuesday, natural gas futures pressed higheryesterday morning as local traders bid the market to fresh highs.However, once above the $3.10 level, the buying dried up openingthe opportunity for an aggressive sell-off that ushered the promptmonth lower in the afternoon. The September contract slipped 2.9cents to $3.03 after notching a $2.995 low.

Following aggressive buying and double-digit increases achievedin Wednesday’s Access trading session, the futures market cooledoff yesterday as physical traders eschewed the opportunity to belong gas at the $2.70 level for the month of August. Once themarket was unable to get past the $2.72 high from Access sellerscame out of the woodwork and demoted the September contract to$2.569, down 3.7 cent for the session.

Following two days of nearly unchecked buying last week, bullswere quick out of the chute again yesterday as they bid the Augustcontract higher in early trading. However, the same profit takingwhich capped gains Friday thwarted the buying again yesterday whenprices could not break above the $2.58 level. The August contractspent the rest of the session chopping sideways before eventuallyfinishing up 1.4 cents to $2.542.