Retreat

Continuing to retreat from the prior Wednesday’s rally, January natural gas futures on Tuesday continued probing lower in search of meaningful support. The prompt month seemed to find it soon after noon (EST) when it bounced after notching $7.41. January natural gas has not been that low since Sept. 28, when the contract recorded a $7.18 low on the day.

Boosted by the bullish combination of hurricane fears and Gulf-area production curtailments, the natural gas futures market surged higher early Tuesday on waves of commercial and local-trader buying. After gapping higher at the opening bell, the September contract shot to a new one-week high at $5.96 as all eyes were watching the development of Tropical Storm (TS) Bonnie in the Gulf of Mexico.

Unable to follow up on their whopping 27.6-cent rally on Tuesday, August natural gas futures spent Wednesday shaving off some of the gain ahead of Thursday morning’s natural gas storage report for the week ended July 2. The prompt month traded as low as $6.335 before settling at $6.37, down 5.4 cents on the day.

Cash prices made some effort at following the previous day’s gas futures market Wednesday, but it was rather half-hearted. Record crude numbers and a spike of nearly a quarter in July natural gas futures on Tuesday apparently made less impression on physical gas traders than somewhat weak fundamentals. Single-digit gains ruled as Wednesday’s quotes ranged from flat to barely more than a dime higher.

Shaking off Tuesday’s price slide, the natural gas futures market on Wednesday moved back to within striking distance of last week’s peak as traders were more impressed with the price gyrations in crude oil futures than the somewhat bearish short-term outlook in natural gas.

Giving back almost all of the 18.7 cents it had gained on Wednesday, the May futures contract Thursday afternoon retreated 16.8 cents to close at $5.765. The decline ended a hectic day that saw the prompt month challenge the $6 mark, notching a high of $5.99. However, it appeared overhead selling prevented the market from breaking above the psychological $6 level, sending prices lower.

Notching a small drop-off from the previous year’s earnings, Oneok Inc. posted full-year 2003 net income of $112.5 million, or $1.22 per share, compared to $166.6 million, or $1.39 per share for 2002. Despite the fall-off in full-year earnings, net income for 4Q2003 jumped to $62.9 million, or 66 cents per diluted share, compared to $37.9 million, or 33 cents per diluted share during 4Q2002.

Notching a small drop-off from the previous year’s earnings, Oneok Inc. on Monday posted full-year 2003 net income of $112.5 million, or $1.22 per share, compared to $166.6 million, or $1.39 per share for 2002. Despite the fall-off in full-year earnings, net income for 4Q2003 jumped to $62.9 million, or 66 cents per diluted share, compared to $37.9 million, or 33 cents per diluted share during 4Q2002.

Bullied by follow-through buying on the heels of last week’s supportive storage release, the natural gas futures market opened higher Friday and rose quickly to test key resistance near the $6 mark. However, the gains were short-lived as market-watchers were hit with weather forecasts confirming the belief that the second half of the month would be much warmer than the first half.