Movement

Price movement was mixed Monday, with gains dominating slightly in the Gulf Coast but the rest of the market mostly softer. Except for triple-digit plunges in the Rockies, in most cases points did not stray very far up or down from flat. Forecasts of colder post-holiday weather in most of the East early this week were proving to be overstated, and the storage report-driven spike of 49.2 cents last Wednesday had little impact in supporting most cash trading points.

Price movement was close to evenly mixed in Thursday’s trading of month-ending supply, but it appeared that losses slightly outnumbered gains. Despite warming trends, there was still a bit of heating load for Friday in parts of the Northeast, Midwest, eastern South and Pacific Northwest, and cash quotes had extra support from November’s expiration-day gain of 28.3 cents Wednesday.

After last week ended with two straight days of across the board declines, mixed price movement returned to the market Monday. Further drops dominated in the Gulf Coast and Northeast and to some degree in the Midwest. Quotes were mostly higher in the Midcontinent and West.

The place many consider the birthplace of the modern U.S. environmental movement, California’s Santa Barbara County, is considering changing its decades-long opposition to renewed offshore drilling along its stretch of Pacific coast, about 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles. The five-member county Board of Supervisors Tuesday will consider writing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to ask for a change of state policy against drilling.

Following four days of mixed price movement, Friday’s cash market emulated the one a week earlier in which all points recorded drops. Cooling load was due to fall during the weekend in some key power generation markets for gas; the screen had provided strongly negative guidance the day before with a 32-cent dive by September futures, and the usual weekend loss of industrial load was another factor in the softness.

Mixed price movement continued in the cash market Tuesday, but this time it was higher numbers that predominated. Temperatures closer to summer norms are returning Wednesday to the western end of the South and will be rising in sections of New England, although generally New England weather will still be fairly mild. The cash market also was supported by the previous day’s 10.1-cent advance by September futures and by news of potential tropical storm activity.

Mixed price movement returned to the market Monday — barely — following Friday’s all-points losses. But only a few locations managed to be flat to as much as about 19 cents higher as softness continued to dominate cash quotes. The 32.3-cent decline by September futures Friday, coupled with an overall dearth of major cooling load outside the interior West, kept prices falling at a large majority of points.

Continued declines were dominant in mixed price movement Monday as weather-based load was fairly light in most areas. Heat levels remained high in much of the West but were declining in inland California from pre-weekend highs. Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) helped boost Rockies numbers by officially scheduling deliveries to Panhandle Eastern in Missouri for Tuesday.

After dropping at all points for the weekend, cash prices were united in movement direction again Monday, but this time the direction was upward. The gains apparently were driven mostly by the previous Friday’s 21.6-cent advance by June futures and a smidgen of cooling load starting to resurface in the South, because forecasts of Tuesday weather were generally mild in most areas.