Plunge

Atlanta-based power and natural gas trader Mirant Corp. lost its months-long effort to stay out of bankruptcy last Monday, filing voluntary petitions seeking Chapter 11 protection in a Texas court. The company also filed an application in Canada last Tuesday seeking creditor protection for its Canadian subsidiaries.

Atlanta-based power and natural gas trader Mirant Corp. lost its months-long effort to avoid bankruptcy late Monday, filing voluntary petitions seeking Chapter 11 protection in a Texas court. The company was expected to file an application in Canada Tuesday seeking creditor protection for its Canadian subsidiaries.

After showing much strength going into the weekend, prices returned to major softening mode in most cases Monday. Dollar-plus declines reigned throughout the East and approached $6 at Chicago citygates despite a sizeable snowstorm being expected to hit the city Tuesday afternoon.

Triple-digit price dives on Dominion and in the Northeast Wednesday were arrayed against an overall mixed market in which few points strayed more than a nickel up or down from flat.

Despite a screen plunge the day before and a generally weak fundamentals outlook, much of the cash market managed to level off Tuesday. Flat to moderately higher or lower pricing dominated at most points, although softness was a bit more pronounced in the West, where declines ranged as high as a dime or so in the Rockies/San Juan market.

Outside of Rockies numbers plummeting by 40 cents or more, and a smaller San Juan-Blanco loss of a little more than 20 cents, the cash market held up more strongly Friday than some traders had expected. Non-Rockies/San Juan quotes ranged from flat to up nearly a dime, with gains of less than a nickel most common.

If Houston-based Enron Corp., the acknowledged largest energy trader in the world, had a wish list of things it might want to add to its bartering bag, it might be to trade in this entire year. So far, the news seems to have gone from bad to worse, with business deals gone sour, the CEO abruptly departing last summer, the first quarterly loss in more than four years, rumors of shady business deals, and as of Friday, a plunging stock price that seems to find no floor.

Despite fundamental support having virtually disappeared, most of the cash market outside the Rockies managed to hang tough for at least one more day of firmness Tuesday, but new price advances slowed almost to a crawl. Non-Rockies quotes tended to range from flat to no more than about a nickel higher, with most points averaging gains of 3 cents or less.

Lower gas and electric sales, the second warmest fourth quarter weather in more than 100 years, and plant maintenance costs squashed CMS Energy Corp.’s 2001 overall earnings, and the Dearborn, MI-based company now expects to earn between $1.35-$1.40 for the year — 35 cents below its estimates.