Nudged

In its latest Short Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the Energy Information Administration (EIA) nudged down is Henry Hub natural gas price forecast for this year and next and predicted that coal-fired power plants will retain their recent gains over gas-fueled facilities. The gas production outlook held steady with last month’s STEO.

Following three straight days during which cash prices nudged higher almost across the board, natural gas traded Thursday for Friday delivery was a mixed bag of minor pluses, minuses and a fair amount of points that went unchanged. Almost all of the additions or subtractions were by less than a nickel, potentially signaling just how content the market is with the current price point.

Appearing to be pretty comfortable with the current price level, natural gas futures traders nudged the expiring May contract around a 6.5-cent range on Wednesday before it went off the board at $4.377, down a penny from Tuesday’s regular session finish. June futures didn’t display much more oomph as what is now the new front-month contract closed the day at $4.408, down 3.6 cents from Tuesday’s close.

ConocoPhillips nudged long-time leader BP plc out of first place in U.S. natural gas output during the third quarter, according to a survey of top producers.

Although its credit ratings remain in the “junk” category, Aquila Inc. received some welcome news last week from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) after it upgraded the Kansas City, MO-based company’s corporate credit rating to “B-” from “CCC+” and removed it from CreditWatch. Fitch Ratings also raised its outlook on Aquila to “stable” from “negative,” and affirmed its rating at “B+,” the fourth-highest junk rating.

Although its credit ratings remain in the “junk” category, Aquila Inc. received some welcome news Wednesday from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) after it upgraded the Kansas City, MO-based company’s corporate credit rating to “B-” from “CCC+” and removed it from CreditWatch. The outlook remains negative.

The July futures contract was nudged lower again yesterday butnot before bulls attempted to push the market higher early in thetrading session. July reached a high of $2.03 just before 1:00 P.M.EST. only to be beaten back to settle at $1.938, down 3.8 cents forthe day. By dipping into the low $1.90s the spot contract traded atits lowest point since April 1997.

Amid a day one broker called “perhaps the most boring of any Iremember,” the spot June NYMEX contract nudged 0.4 cents lower tosettle at $2.200. The broker actually said the day was interestingin that a large amount of anticipated activity never materialized.”Every floor trader we spoke to expected when June broke below$2.18, tons of sell stops would kick in between $2.15-17. But therewasn’t diddly squat for stops. In fact, just the opposite happenedin that there was pretty good scaled-down buying once June hit$2.15,” he said.

The May Nymex contract nudged 0.4 cents lower to $2.475 Friday,amid a day when the contract could neither sustain a move belowtechnical support at $2.44 nor rise any higher than $2.498. Totalestimated volume came in at 46,216, much of which was the work oftraders covering positions before the weekend, a source said.