Softening

Finally, it was feeling more like spring than winter in nearly all market areas Wednesday, and the predictable market reaction was price declines ranging from barely lower to more than 60 cents, although the most common losses were between a dime and a quarter.

Plunges of about a dollar in the Northeast and about half a dollar on Dominion in Appalachia far outran moderate softness in the rest of the market Friday. The February aftermarket started with losses elsewhere that tended to range from about a nickel to a quarter, and the Rockies even registered some small gains.

With many areas turning quite mild for early January and some doubt surfacing about the severity of a predicted return of winter storms later this week, cash prices were flat to down about 35 cents Monday. The common range for most declines was between about a dime and a quarter.

Cash prices emerged from the weekend in a general softening trend Monday, but with some flat to higher numbers in the West mixed in and a sense among a couple of sources that the market is still relatively strong. Northeast citygates plunged while the rest of the East mostly fell between a couple of cents and about 15 cents.

Despite a substantial amount of near-winter weather lingering in the Midwest and Northeast market areas, softer cash prices Wednesday showed conclusively that the early-week rally had run out of steam. A few scattered points were flat to barely lower, but otherwise losses ranged up to about 30 cents at the PG&E citygate. Most decreases were around a dime or less, however.

The September aftermarket got launched on a generally softening note Friday. Most points fell between about a nickel and a quarter from end-of-August levels, and also started out anywhere from about 15 cents to more than 50 cents below their first-of-month indexes. (Trading was done for the Sunday-Tuesday period since deals had been cut on Thursday for the last two days of August.)

Nearly all points ranged from flat to down about a nickel or less Monday, but several sources regarded that as a relatively firm performance in light of the market’s generally bearish outlook. The Northeast was a bastion of strength with double-digit citygate increases, led by a gain of more than 45 cents at the Algonquin Citygate.

Cash prices continued to soften as expected Friday, but except for still-plunging Northeast citygates it was hardly the market “collapse” that more than one source had thought possible the day before. Outside the Northeast, nearly all the declines were between about a dime and 15 cents.

As sources had predicted, mild softness dominated Thursday’s cash market. Some points were flat, and a large majority registered declines of about a nickel or less. Only a few scattered points saw drops of about a dime or more, and several of those were associated with the Chicago market.