Mildly

Weakening weather fundamentals, the industrial load drop typical of a weekend and a mildly bearish storage report the day before combined to keep prices on the slide Friday at all points. Declines ranged from about a nickel to just over 20 cents.

Small single-digit advances dominated the market Monday as (1) industrial demand picked up again after the holiday weekend, (2) futures remained supportive of physical prices and (3) a cold front invading the Midwest from Canada late last week had spread southward to Texas and eastward into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

With an occasional small gain mixed in here and there, prices were mostly flat to moderately softer in quiet trading Friday. Virtually all of the losses were in single digits, with a dime drop in Texas Eastern’s East Texas zone the sole exception.

The Big Apple was where the big prices were Monday. Transco’s Zone 6-New York City pool spiked as high as $18 and rose more than $2 on average to lead more modest gains at most other Northeast points as a new winter storm took aim at southern portions of the region. However, spreading cold in the rest of the U.S. gave little price support to the general market, which ranged from a few cents higher to down about 15 cents.

With flat to mildly higher quotes at a few points in the West amid the overall mix, most of the cash market registered declines ranging from about a nickel to 15 cents Tuesday.

Most points were seeing small, single-digit gains Thursday, but there was also a sprinkling of flat to moderately lower price showings. Prospects for the weekend market were unclear. The slow but steady advance of the most powerful hurricane since 1998 weighed in favor of bullishness, but it was arrayed against both a negative futures reaction to an anticipated big storage injection report and the near-disappearance of air conditioning load outside the desert Southwest and parts of the South.

In another trading day characterized as quiet by sources, cash numbers were about flat to nearly 30 cents higher Monday. However, only CIG achieved the approximate 30-cent increase; other gains were capped at around a dime, and a majority of points were up by about a nickel or less.

With a few flat to barely higher points thrown into the mix, most of the cash market was mildly softer Thursday. A majority of declines were capped at a little more than a nickel, although falls of about 12-15 cents were recorded at scattered points such as Texas Eastern M-3, San Juan-Blanco and the PG&E citygate.

Except for generally flat to mildly lower numbers in San Juan Basin and the Rockies, the overall cash market maintained its downward direction for the fifth straight trading day Wednesday. However, the pace of descent got slower as most non-Rockies/San Juan declines ranged from a little more than a dime in the Northeast to nearly 80 cents at the PG&E citygate. A majority of points were seeing losses in the general vicinity of half a dollar.