Prompt

May’s tenure as prompt month in the natural gas pit has not gone all that well for the bulls. Although there have been good days when prices ratcheted higher, most of the month has been a downer as prices tumbled from the $5.74 high — notched on April’s expiration day — down to beneath the $5.00 level Wednesday. It was only fitting that the May contract continued to slump on its expiration day Thursday. At the closing bell, the May contract limped off the board at $4.891, down 9 cents for the day and a whopping 84.9 cents off its March 28 high.

DTE Energy knocked off more than $400 million from the cost ofacquiring MCN Energy Group last week, according to a revised mergeragreement approved by the boards of both companies.

DTE Energy knocked off more than $400 million from the cost ofacquiring MCN Energy Group yesterday, according to a revised mergeragreement approved by the boards of both companies.

High power costs in the Pacific Northwest prompted Moody’sInvestors Service yesterday to change its outlook on securitiesissued by PacifiCorp (senior secured debt at A2) to negative fromstable.

In what has to be a wilder ride than anything available atDisneyland’s soon-to-open new “California Experience,” theelectricity high jinx caromed all over the nation’s most populousstate last week. It included: rolling blackouts through northernCalifornia; enactment of crisis legislation, the most immediate ofwhich provides $400 million to the state water resources agency soit can buy bulk power for California; a last minute temporaryrestraining order by the California Public Utilities Commissionrequiring Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edisonto continue supplying power to all their customers; variousfinancial downgradings and defaults; and suggestions for compromiseactions by outgoing FERC Chairman James Hoecker.

Natural gas cash and futures markets entered the stratosphere last week as cold weather, soaring demand and substandard storage levels led to new all-time high prices and prompted the U.S. Senate to schedule hearings on the situation.

Buoyed by falling temperatures and spiking cash prices, theprompt natural gas futures contract did what has become almostsecond nature for the commodity this year as it rumbled to a newall-time high Tuesday. In fact, after a strong opening, the onlyquestion to be answered was which month (December or January) wouldset a new high watermark.

The price is right for LNG in the U.S. currently, and termimport deals should be locked in before these opportunities vanish,according to Tamela Pallas, president and COO of CMS Energy’sMarketing Services and Trading division.

Capping a 12-day, 45% price increase, natural gas futures reversed lower yesterday as traders locked in profits amid technical and fundamental price uncertainty. The December contract took the sell-off squarely on the chin, dropping 46.7 cents or 7.5% to close at $5.798. The out months also felt the sting as the winter strip (Dec.-Mar.) tumbled 37.8 cents to $5.537 and the 12-month strip retraced 29.9 cents to $4.821.