Quotes

Nearly every trading point continued to build Wednesday on theslight degree of bullishness established on Tuesday. The majorityof increases were moderate, within the range of 2-4 cents. Therewas “just a little more heat” to raise cooling load a notch higher,said a Midcontinent source, and the futures screen literally put inits 2 cents worth with a rise of a little over that amount.

As sources had expected, the prolonged decline of the Junefutures contract throughout Tuesday’s trading made its influencefelt in softer cash prices Wednesday. But cash losses weredecidedly modest, with nearly all points registering drops of only2-4 cents. Futures offered only a tiny downtick of less than apenny as further guidance Wednesday.

As presaged Tuesday by late retrenchment in cash quotes and ascreen drop that carried over into Access trading, the cash marketwas in full retreat Wednesday. All points were off by at least anickel or so, and most of the decreases were around a dime. In whatwas described often as quiet trading, the softening Henry Hubfutures contract for June was the only significant influence oncash that sources could cite.

As expected, Christmas Eve was pretty much a non-event in thecash market. Virtually all holiday weekend business through todayhad been taken care of Wednesday, and though a number of tradersdid put in brief appearances at the office Thursday, they didlittle more than check what futures was doing in an abbreviatedtrading session. “We had to come in for the first half of the dayor else count it as a whole vacation day,” one marketer commented.

Thursday’s trading was almost a repeat of Wednesday as cashquotes for both late August and September deteriorated again.Another big drop on the Nymex screen was too much for the physicalgas market to ignore, and sources continued to report that sellersgreatly outnumbered buyers. In some instances a buyer could almostname his or her September price, one trader said.

Hot weather appeared to be the primary driver of gas pricesMonday. When you’ve got it, as regions from the Rockies westwarddid, quotes went up by about a nickel at many points; when youdon’t have it, as the relatively balmy Midwest and Northeast marketareas didn’t, prices were flat to down as much as 7 cents.

For a change, fundamentals actually seemed to be behind pricemovements at the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday. The spotApril contract gained 4.0 cents to $2.169 yesterday, as a blast ofwinter temperatures propelled cash market prices up 5-10 centsacross much of the country.

Prices for the last day of February were mostly softer Friday,but quotes for the Southwest basins, Rockies and intra-Albertareflected flatness. And Canadian exports into Northwest at Sumas,which had been languishing in the low to mid $1.10s at the start ofthe week, climbed to the $1.30 area. The big exception to Westernfirmness was a fall of about a dime at the Southern Californiaborder in wide-ranging numbers.