Lackluster

After spending precious little time in the $1.80s Monday, February natural gas futures bubbled higher on expiration day yesterday as a late round of local short-covering boosted prices back above the $2.00 mark. By virtue of its 9.8-cent gain and $2.006 final settlement price, the February contract managed to avoid last October’s fate of a sub-$2.00 closing price. Volume was normal for an expiration day with 129,016 contracts changing hands.

Aquila Inc. made its initial public offering in grand style yesterday, becoming one of the hottest traded IPOs in a lackluster market, coming off the blocks at an opening price of $29.75 on the New York Stock Exchange — almost 25% above its offering price of $24. It was the third-most actively traded stock on the NYSE, with more than 7.8 million shares changing hands.

With Henry Hub natural gas prices “bouncing” around $2/Mcf, and prices in the Rockies even more lackluster, producers once again are re-evaluating drilling budgets, pulling back on near-term production activity, and “dusting off” plans to shut in production — plans that they haven’t looked at in years, says the Energy and Environmental Analysis Inc. (EEA) in its October gas update.

Fresh off their success in not allowing natural gas to dip below major support on Monday, natural gas bulls reared their horns yesterday as they prodded prices to a constructive opening print. However, further advances were hard to come by, leaving the market to check mostly sideways for the rest of the session. The August contract closed at $3.165, a hike of 9.7 cents on the day.

A significant number of customers who have entered into an electric retail open access (ROA) enrollment process sponsored by Consumers Energy Co. are holding back on taking the next step for open access service, according to a recent investigation done by staff at the Michigan Public Service Commission (PSC). Although PSC staff did not find a direct correlation between the low participation rates and problems with Consumers’ enrollment process, it voiced concerns over whether the company will be able to handle a much larger anticipated volume of customers once full electric open access kicks in at the start of next year in Michigan.

Following a lackluster rally attempt last Thursday, bears in the natural gas pit reasserted themselves Friday, pressuring the spot month lower for the tenth time in the last eleven trading session. Buoyed by overnight short-covering, the June contract was fast out of the chute at the opening bell, as it broke above Thursday’s $4.55 high. However, the buying pressure dried up at about 10:00 A.M. (EST) leaving the market susceptible to a sell-off. At the closing bell, June was 3.7 cents lower at $4.490.

Aquila Inc. made its initial public offering in grand style last week, becoming one of the hottest traded IPOs in a lackluster market, coming off the blocks at an opening price of $29.75 on the New York Stock Exchange — almost 25% above its offering price of $24. The first-day offering raised about $430 million, and was the third-most actively traded stock on the NYSE Wednesday, with more than 7.8 million shares changing hands.

Adding to losses notched in Monday’s open-outcry session,natural gas futures gapped lower at the open yesterday and neverlooked back, as traders liquidated positions ahead of today’sstorage report. The February contract took the selling squarely onthe chin, tumbling 51.1 cents to close at $6.946. Estimated volumewas weak as only 42,671 contracts changed hands.

Except for a lackluster, slightly lower performance at severalNortheast citygates, the cash market was flexing its muscles like avain pro wrestler Thursday. Price hikes that generally rangedbetween a nickel and a dime dominated the landscape, althoughCalifornia firming was milder except at capacity-constrained Malin.