Nose

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a 37 Bcf gas storage injection Thursday morning, prompting the near-month gas futures contract to nose dive to its daily low of $6.45 from $6.60 in the minute following the 10:30 a.m. storage report. The injection was on the high end of expectations, many of which centered around 30 Bcf. But the September contract managed to rebound throughout the afternoon, ending the day down only 7.7 cents to $6.689.

Analysts at Raymond James & Associates aren’t quite ready to pack up their bull horns and nose rings, but they had to concede Monday that the domestic gas supply picture is improving. To them that simply means the domestic gas production decline isn’t as steep as they previously projected.

Reflecting the nose-dive in wholesale prices, Southern California Gas Co. in July whacked its retail prices to residential and small business customers by 48%, dropping from 52.1 cents/therm in June to 27 cents this month.

Reflecting the nose-dive in wholesale prices, Southern California Gas Co. in July whacked its retail prices to residential and small business customers by 48%, dropping from 52.1 cents/therm in June to 27 cents this month.

After prices nose-dived during September’s first three days oftrading, a number of traders thought they would never get back toindex levels during the month. Then after steady increases in theweek after Labor Day put quite a few points around or near indexesagain, there were those who said prices were likely to weaken butcertainly wouldn’t plunge to those early-September depths again.

You could have got a nose bleed watching gas futures yesterday.A 1.5-cent gap higher to $2.700/MMBtu at the opening bell triggereda buying panic that sent October Henry Hub futures up 23.9 cents to$2.851. Estimated volume came in at a massive 116,601 contracts.