Influenced

Liquidity at the citygates has become a problem for industrial buyers with the disappearance of large trading companies, and the middleman buyer for Ford Motor, General Electric and DaimlerChyrsler, among others, is going back to the field for his supplies.

Liquidity at the citygates has become a problem for industrial buyers with the disappearance of large trading companies, and the middleman buyer for Ford Motor, General Electric and DaimlerChyrsler, among others, is going back to the field for his supplies.

Cash quotes for the last day of June tumbled Thursday,influenced by futures weakness in the morning and from the previousday and also by a general dearth of weather-related demand outsidethe West.

Though the May Henry Hub futures contract eventually settled fora small gain of less than a penny, it was the screen’s morningflirtation with the $2.15-17 area that got most of the credit for astrong performance Tuesday by the cash market. Cash rises tended tofade out going westward to virtually nothing in California trading,but virtually all eastern points were up at least a nickel and inmany cases saw increases approaching a dime.

Normally natural gas futures are influenced by a hodgepodge offactors: storage, technicals, support, resistance, supply anddemand. Of course last week was anything but normal as a hurricanewhich the market has not seen the likes of since Andrew, wasbearing down on the Gulf of Mexico leaving a wide swath ofdestruction in its wake. Now the question to be answered is whetherHurricane Georges (pronounced ZHORZH) will not only live in theminds of residents of Florida and the Carribean Islands, but alsoin the memories of natural gas traders. That was still a very murkyquestion as of Friday. One thing was becoming evident late lastweek: October’s expiration today will be anything but normal. But,despite the continued threat of storm, the October actually slipped0.2 cents to settle at $2.181 on Friday.