Modest

Prices managed to eke out more mostly small gains Thursday in decidedly non-volatile trading as weather support continued to turn slightly more bullish. A few scattered points turned in essentially flat performances. Nearly all of the gains were in single digits, but they ranged to a little more than 20 cents in the Rockies, where some of the coldest U.S. temperatures — and even a bit of snow — currently reside.

Drawing support from a bit of post-winter chill lingering across the northern tier of states and moderate increases in air conditioning in parts of the southern tier, cash prices recorded mild advances at the great majority of points Wednesday.

Friday’s nosedive in petroleum-based energy futures (along with a modest retreat in the natural gas contract) failed to exercise its usual belated “following the screen” appeal in Monday’s cash market. Instead, physical prices extended their weekend gains Monday, boosted by fresh incursions of winter weather in the northern market areas and in the late going by renewed surges in Nymex’s energy products.

After posting a 25-cent rally Thursday, the natural gas futures market cooled its jets Friday as almost equal amounts of profit-taking and commercial buying entered the trading pit. At the close the sellers had exerted a little more influence, resulting in a 4.7-cent decline and $5.596 settlement in the prompt April contract.

Ending the streak of losing sessions at two, natural gas futures held on to an early advance Wednesday as light short-covering buoyed the market on expiration day. The February contract completed its tenure as Nymex prompt month at $5.775, up 5.9 cents for the session, but down 46.8 cents since its debut as the spot contract a month ago.

Price declines in most of the market were fairly modest Friday considering the extra demand loss of a holiday weekend and the trends of moderating weather that were expected to keep temperatures mild in the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. this week. The West even saw gains in California and other points outside the Southwest basins as Rockies supply constraints became a concern.

Adding to Thursday’s modest gains, the natural gas futures market picked up some steam Friday as long-expected short-covering entered the Nymex pit. The local- and fund-led move higher Friday was anything but a straight line, however.

The August aftermarket was launched Thursday with modest downturns at nearly every point. Malin, the PG&E citygate and a few Rockies points were flat to a couple of pennies higher; otherwise, declines ranged from about 2 cents to a dime.

With little fresh information on which to base their decisions, natural gas futures traders played it safe Friday in the abbreviated, pre-holiday-weekend session. Light short-covering in the early afternoon was only thing conspicuous in an otherwise featureless trading session. June finished at $6.119, up 8.4 cents for the session and just a few ticks short of the prior Friday’s $6.122 closing price.