Mercantile

The New York Mercantile Exchange’s (Nymex) natural gas pitprobably will be a lot more active and may be more efficient onWednesdays, starting March 1. The exchange along with several majormarket players have convinced the American Gas Association to moveup by two hours the release of its influential gas storage report.

The New York Mercantile Exchange’s (Nymex) natural gas pitprobably will be a lot more active on Wednesdays, starting March 1.The exchange, along with several major market players, hasconvinced the American Gas Association to move up by two hours therelease of its influential gas storage report.

The New York Mercantile Exchange said it will move electricitytrading from open outcry to the Nymex Access electronic tradingsystem following the close of trading March 2. At the 4 p.m. startthat day of the Access session, which marks the start of the March3 trading session, the Exchange will list all of its existingelectricity futures and options contracts for trading on the systemthrough 2:30 PM the next day. The contract will begin trading at 4p.m. Monday through Thursday evenings and will begin trading at 7p.m. Sundays.

The New York Mercantile Exchange said it will move electricitytrading from open outcry to the Nymex ACCESS electronic tradingsystem following the close of trading March 2. At the 4 p.m. startthat day of the ACCESS session, which marks the start of the March3 trading session, the Exchange will list all of its existingelectricity futures and options contracts for trading on the systemthrough 2:30 PM the next day. The contract will begin trading at 4PM Monday through Thursday evenings and will begin trading at 7p.m. Sundays.

The New York Mercantile Exchange’s electricity futures contractsfailed to take off for a number of reasons but the market is worseoff because of their failure, according to Jack Cogen, president ofNew York City-based NatSource.

Traders made it two in a row yesterday at the New YorkMercantile Exchange as they covered shorts and bid up natural gasprices for the second straight session ahead of cooler weatherexpected next week.

Y2K was not an issue yesterday for traders in the natural gaspit at the New York Mercantile Exchange as they seamlessly made theswitch from the December 1999 contract to the January 2000contract. They did, however, have some unfinished business to takecare of. After opening at $2.33, January rumbled 9 cents higher tofill in the chart gap created by December, between the Nov. 19 lowof $2.39 and the Nov. 22 high of $2.35. But before any talk of asustained rally could circulate-bears, armed with fresh forecastscalling for above-normal temperatures-were successful in all butcompletely erasing those early morning gains. At the closing bellthe January contract was up just 2.2 cents to finish at $2.352.

The chips are stale; the drinks are flat, and people areleaving. The New York Mercantile Exchange electricity futurescontracts aren’t very festive, and now the host is wondering whatit can do to liven up the party.

The stage was set for expiration day pyrotechnics Monday at theNew York Mercantile Exchange. Bulls were confident they could addto the string of five higher highs and higher lows notched on thedaily charts last week. On the other hand, bears believed theconfluence of mild temperatures and follow-through on the heels ofFridays price erosion would set the tone early yesterday. They wereboth wrong. Except for a late and almost inconsequential bliphigher, the July contract was a model of stability yesterday, wherebuying and selling matched up nearly perfectly. July closed out itstenure as spot month up a meager 0.4 cents to settle at $2.262. TheAugust contract finished up 3.2 at $2.324.