Impressive

The May Nymex contract continued its strong charge higher onThursday, reaching a high of $2.605 before ultimately settling up6.1 cents at $2.562. More impressive than the increase, however,was the estimated volume figure. Coming on the heels of Wednesday’shigh trade volume, Thursday saw over 100,000 contracts tradinghands. This leaves little doubt speculators played a role in May’srise yesterday. Even though current Henry Hub prices are 15-20cents lower than that, the current heat wave is waking people up tothe possibility of extreme air conditioning demand this summer, ananalyst told GPI. “The supply/demand balance has been so tight forso long, that his extra demand is highlighting potential problemsthis summer. There are already problems with coal delivery inTexas, and if that continues into the summer, watch out,” he said.