futures

Feeding off late gains notched by the expiring April contractMonday, May kicked off its campaign as the spot month at Nymexyesterday by continuing higher in active trading. And whereas Aprilcontract made its mark in a late short squeeze, May was promptedhigher throughout the day by a steady stream of commercial andspeculative buying. Several sources also pointed to buy-stoporders, which were triggered as the market moved through the$1.93-95 range as a reason for the strength. May finished up 9.5cents at $1.978.

After a convincing 7-cent gain to kick off the week, the futuresmarket forged higher yesterday morning amid continuedshort-covering mixed with some fresh buying activity. The Aprilcontract was bumping up against the March 12 high of $1.825 inmid-day trading, but in the afternoon the buying dried up, leavingonly sellers to determine the market direction. The resulting priceslide-7 cents in 45 minutes-send the prompt month spiraling lowerto finish at $1.754.

Daniel Rappaport was elected to a fourth two-year term asNymex’s chairman, making him the longest currently sitting chairmanof any futures exchange in the world, , the exchange announcedWednesday. Rappaport was first elected to the position in 1993.Before his election, he served six years as a member of Nymex’sboard of directors. Rappaport has been a member of the exchangesince 1981.

Six inches of snow in New York wasn’t enough to convince futurestraders to resume the up-trend the American Gas Association storagereport so thoroughly wiped out last week. The April contract movedsharply lower for the third session in a row, closing down 4.2cents to $1.717. Shortly before the close, the contract broke belowwhat was deemed a key support level at $1.70 to post a low of$1.695 for the day. The $1.755 high was reached just after theopening bell.

Natural gas futures closed higher after a weak start yesterdayas traders were able to look past the dismal fundamental outlook tofocus on the short-covering activity at hand. That lifted the Marchcontract a modest 3.4 cents to finish at $1.86 on its first day asthe prompt month.

Getting no signals from the futures trading pit, thelate-January cash market saw mild softening Tuesday. With snowyconditions covering the northwestern quadrant of the U.S., Westernpoints again tended to be flat to off no more than a penny or two.However, they were joined in small dips by several Gulf Coast andMidcontinent pipes, and Michigan citygates even managed to eke outmodest gains.

The futures market was poised to continue lower Wednesday, butafter a lower open failed to entice additional selling,short-covering became the feature of the day. That gave theDecember contract the opportunity it needed to trend into positiveterritory yesterday morning, before settling at $2.213 at theclosing bell. Estimated volume was 75,306.

Coming into Tuesday’s session at Nymex traders agreed that oneof two things would happen-prices would either continue to spikelower in follow-though of Monday’s decline, or the market wouldtake a day to catch its breath. Those that cast their vote for thelatter were correct yesterday when the December contract slipped aslight 2.6 cents to settle at $2.279.

Tuesday’s cash market prices shrugged-off a late plunge on theNymex futures screen on Monday, as they edged upward on hype fromthe first big snowstorm of the season. Most price points added acouple of cents to Monday’s gains as a powerful storm system plowedeastward after tormenting the midsection of the country. Accordingto weather services, several inches of snow accumulated from theDakotas southwestward to Colorado and the mountains of northern NewMexico and Arizona.