Lower

Cash prices ignored a falling screen and the usual lower gasdemand of a weekend, instead using growing heat in the Northeastand Midwest to fashion an overall flat market Friday. The East hadmore of the mild firmness while small declines tended to clustermore in the West. That was best illustrated by the day’s extremes:increases of more than a nickel for citygates in the hot and humidNortheast, as opposed to a drop of a nickel at the PG&Ecitygate, where the utility had a high-inventory OFO in effect (seeTransportation Notes).

The cash market finally broke free from the doldrums that hadbecalmed much of it earlier this week and found a direction inwhich to move Thursday-mostly down a few cents in the East. Sourcescited the decline in the Henry Hub futures contract for July as themain reason for eastern cash drops that ranged up to a nickel orso. However, continued warm to hot weather kept air conditionershumming in the West, and the resultant power generation load forgas rendered most of the region’s trading points resistant to thegeneral softness. Western quotes tended to be flat to up a penny.

Avista Corp. has warned preliminary estimates indicate secondquarter earnings per share will fall below securities analysts’current consensus second quarter estimate of $0.33 per share due tolosses in April and May within Avista Energy, its national energymarketing and trading. First quarter earnings in 1998 were $0.27per common share. The prospects for a disappointing second quarterfollow on first quarter earnings of $0.34 per diluted share, wellbelow the $0.56 per share in first quarter 1998.

Light profit-taking that began in Monday’s Access tradingsession, continued yesterday at the New York Mercantile Exchange.Locals were seen as aggressive sellers, unloading positions aheadof today’s storage report. The July contract finished at $2.393,down 4.9 cents for the day.

After a quick check lower to fill in a small chart gap, thefutures market continued higher last Friday in an abbreviated, butextremely active trading session. The July contract finished up 7.6cents to $2.358, capping a two-day, 14.8-cent advance. Estimatedvolume was 66,263.

As sources had expected, the prolonged decline of the Junefutures contract throughout Tuesday’s trading made its influencefelt in softer cash prices Wednesday. But cash losses weredecidedly modest, with nearly all points registering drops of only2-4 cents. Futures offered only a tiny downtick of less than apenny as further guidance Wednesday.

Defying the conventional wisdom that lower gas demand over aweekend usually causes softer prices, cash prices put on a show ofstrength Friday with nearly all points rising by a nickel or more.An increase of less than a penny in the Henry Hub futures contractprovided little support for the cash market, so sources concludedit must have been the residual effect from Thursday’s screen run-upof nearly a dime that helped push up cash quotes Friday.

Hoping the second time is the charm, Duke subsidiary TexasEastern Transmission announced Wednesday an open season for 300,000Dth/d of firm capacity on its proposed Spectrum Pipeline project.The open season will last from May 7 to June 4.

Hoping the second time is the charm, Duke Energy announcedWednesday an open season for 300,000 Dth/d of firm capacity on itsproposed Spectrum Pipeline project. The open season will last fromMay 7 to June 4.