Slide

The cash market was back on a downhill slide Wednesday as theuprising that had carried some points as much as 80-90 cents higherin the first two days of the week ran out of gas. The retrenchmentwas not unexpected because futures were falling for the second dayin a row and the colder weather that had driven the earlier uptickswas giving way to new forecasts calling for no colder than “normal”temperatures in many areas.

Late-November price softness showed little sign of abating inpost-weekend activity Monday, and except for residents of theNorthwest and Upper Plains enduring somewhat nasty weather, thereason was apparent to anybody who went outdoors. Temperaturesapproaching the Thanksgiving holiday are unseasonably mild for thegreat majority of the U.S., and the lack of load combined with theearly stages of storage withdrawal season were depressing both cashand futures numbers. Quotes were mostly flat for the SouthernCalifornia border and TCO; otherwise price declines tended to rangefrom about a nickel to more than a dime.

Cash market predictions proved accurate again as pricescontinued to slide going into the weekend Friday. It didn’t take arocket scientist to make that call, sources said, as forecasts ofgorgeous weather virtually throughout the nation (and north of theborder too) should lower gas load greatly by encouraging a lot ofoutdoor activity.

September debuted as the spot Nymex contract Thursday in afairly uneventful fashion, by first trading briefly higher, beforelight selling pushed the market down to settle at $1.906, a 2.7cent loss for the day. Traders continue to point to the currentdowntrend that “exerts its influence on this market at every turn,”as a reason for the move lower. “[Thursday] there was not muchimpetus to move higher or lower, but the mentality in this marketcontinues to be buy little dips and sell the rest of the time,” atrader offered.

Bears roamed the gas price forest with impunity Friday, sendingall markets down at least a nickel or so and causing severalWestern points to crater. Continued steamy weather in the Southeastand Midcontinent was no match for relatively mild conditions in themajor market areas of the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast. Andthe screen’s drop of about 4 cents didn’t lend any support.

The relatively small declines in Eastern markets Fridaysurprised some traders. Although down another 2-5 cents overall,pipes in the Gulf Coast and Midcontinent were rebounding late tolevels essentially flat from Thursday. The weakness in Thursdayafternoon’s Access futures trading pushed prices down early Friday,a marketer said, “then things came back up when the Merc showed alittle strength.” Although the screen eventually shed its gains towind up basically unchanged, that occurred too late to impact cashtrading.

Cash markets settled down for the weekend Friday with flat toslightly softer prices prevailing. Most of the declines of 2-4cents were concentrated in the Gulf Coast and Appalachia/Northeast.