Gains

After testing, but not breaching stubborn resistance at $4.60Thursday, natural gas futures tumbled lower Friday as traderselected to take profits ahead of the weekend. The near-month Julycontract was hit with two distinct selling waves during the firsthour of trading Friday, setting the tone for a session in which thecontract slipped 10.3 cents to finish at $4.448.

Several sources had expected cash prices to stay put for themost part Wednesday until the AGA’s storage report was released inthe afternoon, but they were fooled. Instead, buoyed by a firmerscreen during the morning, cash got a head start on the subsequentbig futures run-up by rising about a dime or more at nearly allpoints.

Building on modest gains achieved yesterday morning, the futuresmarket rocketed more than 20 cents higher Wednesday afternoon uponthe release of yet another bullish storage report. Finishing 27.1cents stronger at $4.378, the prompt July contract retraced morethan half of its Monday price slide yesterday and now stands closerto the upper limit of its $3.80-$4.60 trading range.

NRG Energy Inc. pulled off a respectable first three days on theNew York Stock Exchange, as the independent power subsidiary ofNorthern States Power saw its initial public offering (IPO) closewell above its set price of $15 when the markets closed lastFriday. NRG opened at $15.88 on Wednesday, and closed on Friday at$17 1/4 on a volume of 913,000 shares.

Wednesday afternoons have been interesting times lately in thenatural gas pit at Nymex and yesterday was no exception. Afterspiking as much as 20 cents higher on storage-hype-related buying,the June contract spiraled lower after the report was released. TheJuly contract finished at $4.356, just 0.2-cents above Tuesday’sclose. According to the American Gas Association, 56 Bcf wasinjected into underground storage facilities last week, bringingtotal working gas to 1,274 Bcf or 429 Bcf less than at the sametime last year.

NRG Energy Inc.pulled off a respectable first day on the New York Stock Exchange, asthe independent power subsidiary of Northern States Power saw itsinitial public offering (IPO) close well above its set price of$15. NRG opened at $15.88 and closed the day at $16.63 on a volume of8.1 million shares.

Buoyed by cool weather in the Northeast, bullish techincals andsupportive cash market prices, natural gas futures rumbled higheryesterday as traders bid up prices in an opening bell buyingfrenzy. After gapping higher at the open, the May contract spikedto a new life-of-contract high during the first hour of trading.From that point the buying waned and prices were left to chopsideways for the remainder of the session. May finished up 8 centsat $3.158.

In what is becoming a bizarre case of concern to future merchantenergy project proponents, California regulators rescued a secondmerchant underground natural gas storage project from the trashheap Thursday by refusing to support a recommendation to deny theproposal and postponing the item for a future meeting. Analternative to the proposed administrative law judge (ALJ) decisionis likely to be developed by one of the members of the CaliforniaPublic Utilities Commission.

Prices emerged from the weekend to move higher in fairly quietactivity Monday, mostly in amounts of a nickel or less. Theoutperforming points were concentrated in California and theNortheast.