futures

Following the announcement of a 72 Bcf storage injection, the June natural gas futures contract jumped 9 cents from $6.27 to trade at $6.36 as of 10:39 a.m, revisiting the high set on Tuesday. However, the contract then worked lower for the entire afternoon, trading within the $6.19-6.29 range, before settling at $6.219, down 9.1 cents on the day.

Seeing its first action as the prompt month, the June natural gas futures contract took another shot at the psychologically important $6 level following the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) report of a 78 Bcf weekly gas storage injection for the week ended April 23.

Sharon Brown-Hruska, a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), last Thursday told a gathering of energy marketing professionals that she believes that the “era of false price reporting will soon be a part of history.”

Sharon Brown-Hruska, a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), on Thursday told a gathering of energy marketing professionals that she believes that the “era of false price reporting will soon be a part of history.”

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) requested “documents and other information” from American Electric Power (AEP) in January in connection with an agency investigation of activities affecting the price of natural gas last fall, the Columbus, OH-based utility told the Securities and Exchange Commission in its 10-K filing.

Despite a 4% increase in futures and options trading and clearing volume last year to a record 139.2 million, Nymex Holdings, the parent company of the New York Mercantile Exchange, reported that its net income fell 28% to $8.9 million, while its earnings per share dropped by the same amount to $10,882. Operating revenue decreased $5 million to $184.2 million. Operating expenses rose about $3.1 million to $165.5 million while clearing and transaction fees were reduced 0.7%. Volume submitted for clearing only through the Nymex ClearPort clearing platform rose 0.5 million to six million contracts. Nymex Division seat values reached a record $1.625 million.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission “has wrapped up nearly all the energy investigations of companies” that were begun in late 2002, and is now looking at only a “few remaining companies” and individuals at energy firms that it believes engaged in market misconduct, Chairman James E. Newsome told a group of attorneys.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission “has wrapped up nearly all the energy investigations of companies” that it began in late 2002, and is now looking at only a “few remaining companies” and individuals at the energy firms who were responsible for market misconduct, Chairman James E. Newsome told a group of attorneys Friday.

Slight moderating trends in winter weather, weak futures and lessened industrial load over a weekend combined to send prices lower at nearly all points Friday.