Range

After etching out its daily range during the first 40 minutes of trading yesterday, the natural gas futures market moved mostly sideways, as traders played their cards very close to their vests. Not even a rally by its petroleum complex brethren could entice natural gas out of its funk, and as a result the market was left to check sideways for the remainder of the session. At $2.253, the November contract finished unchanged on its first day as prompt contract at Nymex. Meanwhile, the 12-month strip sifted lower 1.1 cents to $2.768.

Buoyed by a price-constructive intermediate-range weather forecast and stronger cash market prices, natural gas futures shuffled higher for the second-straight session Monday amid light short covering and fresh long accumulation. Although unable to sustain a move back above the $3.00 mark, bulls were impressed by the market’s ability to rebound from a late morning dip to the low $2.90s. Bears, meanwhile appear more convinced than ever that the market will continue lower. At the closing bell, the August contract was 2.3 cents stronger at $2.978.

Vice President Dick Cheney says he expects to see a broad range of energy legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush by the end of the year.

Houston-based Enron Corp., which may be shoring up a long-range plan to sell some of its assets not related to its massive trading arm, may consider selling off its growing wind power subsidiary as soon as this year, according to Enron Wind’s managing director, Andreas Reuter.

Trading inside the range established on Wednesday and Thursday, natural gas futures checked mostly sideways Friday as light short covering ahead of the weekend was met with an almost equal amount of overhead selling. The July contract finished at $3.93, up 1.6 cents on the day, but down 10.3 cents for the week.

Despite cold temperatures both outside and in the latest mediumrange weather outlooks, natural gas prices shuffled lower yesterdayin an extremely quiet trading session. After failing to retestWednesday’s highs yesterday morning, the April contract succumbedto light selling throughout the afternoon. Estimated volume of just32,117 contracts confirmed the thin trading activity.

Central Hudson Energy Services, with a long-term strategy tooffer a full range of energy supply alternatives, moved toward thatgoal with the purchase this week of Griffith Consumers Co., aheating oil provider with 43,000 retail customers and a significantmarket share in the Washington, D.C. area.

All cash points retreated Wednesday within a range of about anickel to 20 cents, with most declines occupying the middle groundat 8-15 cents. Sources attributed the softening to the screen’sweakness a day earlier, a general dearth of cooling load, anddoubts about production risks from downgraded Tropical Storm Debby.

After trading within an extremely tight, 3.5-cent range for mostof yesterday’s session, natural gas futures were lifted by a waveof buying that hit the market literally seconds after the AmericanGas Association released one of its most bullish storage reports sofar this injection season.