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The cash market on average fell around a nickel Tuesday with pervasive weakness seen in all sections of the country. The Midwest was weak, but isolated gains were noted at Northeast points. East and Rockies locations fell. At the close of futures trading, December had risen 11.3 cents to $3.832 and January had gained 10.7 cents to $3.944. January crude oil tumbled $2.53 to $86.75/bbl on hints of a break in Middle East fighting.

Although temperatures are rising in much of the West, they were diminishing in sections of the South, and despite chilly conditions lingering for at least another day or so in the Midwest, the region is due to see a warming trend toward the weekend. The modestly bearish weather influences, which reversed marginal support for Tuesday’s cash market, combined with the 3.1-cent fall by October futures Tuesday to drive quotes lower at a large majority of points Wednesday.

Relatively moderate heat levels in the Mid-South and Northeast, along with mild to cool forecasts for Canada, the Pacific Northwest and sections of the Midwest, failed to prevent a large majority of locations from realizing small price gains Tuesday. However, inland California was beginning to join much of the desert Southwest in anticipating highs ranging from the mid 90s to more than 110, and the Rockies — while still fairly moderate — had predicted peak temperatures start to climb into the low 80s.

Frigid temperatures and frozen precipitation extending into nearly all sections of the U.S. and Canada caused spot prices to rise at all locations except three in Western Canada Wednesday.

A frigid weekend in many sections was becoming a distant memory for many people who thought they had already seen too much winter already. Spot gas demand was dropping, and it was quite possible that more storage supplies were being substituted in its place, resulting in substantial declines in numbers across the board Tuesday.

With regulators increasing concerns about data gaps related to the pressure testing of sections of high-pressure natural gas transmission pipelines, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) this month has assumed a data-gathering approach, while refusing to speculate on how much of the 1,800 miles of transmission pipeline it has traversing high-consequence areas (HCA) may need testing.

With springtime weather abounding in most areas and forecasts of sub-freezing lows rare outside Canada and sections of the Upper Plains near the Canadian border, prices continued to drop in most of the market Monday. Last Friday’s decline of 10.9 cents by April futures further depressed cash prices, and the return of industrial demand from its usual weekend hiatus had virtually no supportive effect.

With springtime weather abounding in most areas and forecasts of sub-freezing lows rare outside Canada and sections of the Upper Plains near the Canadian border, prices continued to drop in most of the market Monday. Last Friday’s decline of 10.9 cents by April futures further depressed cash prices, and the return of industrial demand from its usual weekend hiatus had virtually no supportive effect.

Colder weekend trends in sections of the South and Midwest failed to inspire enough heating load to counter the bearish influences of generally moderate weather as winter enters its final week, the prior-decline of 11.9 cents by April futures and the dropoff of industrial demand during a weekend. As a result, prices fell at all but one point Friday.