Sorry to sound like a broken record, but Thursday’s marketcontinued the pattern set Tuesday and Wednesday: ever-higher pricepeaks in the frigid Northeast (the top quote was $19 at TranscoZone 6-NYC) and considerably smaller but still strong increaseselsewhere.
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Articles from Spike
Despite a Summer Struggle, Cinergy Will Stay in Supply Business
After a July power price spike forced it to default on severalsales agreements with marketers and led to a $73 million net lossthat month, Cinergy Corp. seriously considered quitting the supplybusiness altogether (See NGI Aug. 9, Aug. 11). But CEO James E.Rogers said last week the company’s board of directors hasunanimously decided Cinergy should stick with it as the industrymoves to a competitive environment.
Profit-Taking Takes Bite Out of Recent Advances
Following Thursday’s remarkable 27-cent spike, natural gasprices eased Friday at the New York Mercantile Exchange as tradersrolled out of near-month October contracts in favor of wintermonths. While the October contract finished down 6.7 cents, theloss was much less severe for November, which closed down 1.5cents. December and January 2000 contracts resisted the downturnaltogether, notching gains of 4 cents and 2.2 cents respectively.
Futures Slip Lower Amid Enormous Price Range
Following a spectacular, 24-cent price spike Thursday, thenatural gas futures market cooled its heels Friday as traders tookprofits rather than spend the weekend long. That allowed theOctober contract to sift a nickel lower to $2.801 in an active114,602-volume session.
San Juan Spike Stands Out in Mostly Lower Market
Most of the cash market continued to sink a few cents lowerMonday in price showings that ranged from essentially flat to downmore than a dime on ANR’s Southeast Mainline, which is experiencinga capacity curtailment of about 100 MMcf/d during May due tocompressor maintenance.
Cash Strength Unexpected; Sumas Spike Unlikely to Last
“It just goes to show you. This gas market doesn’t make muchsense,” a marketer said. Her comment reflected the chagrin of manytraders Thursday when late-January cash prices tended to firm by upto a nickel instead of falling as generally expected. Most sourceshad been sure Wednesday that the anemic storage withdrawal figurereported by AGA (92 Bcf) would lead to cash softness. Sourcesprofessed to have no clue as to what was propping up prices in theface of no fundamental support, although one suggested the strongFebruary futures close might have given cash a psychological boost.
Futures Spike Amid Hurricane Fear
The futures market spiked higher Monday in response to thethreat to natural gas supplies in the Gulf of Mexico posed byHurricane Mitch. There was an early buying surge as non-commericaltraders struggled to close out short positions ahead of the rally.However, once the market started its momentum, buying came from allsegments of the market. The November contract settled up 13.4 centsto $2.298.
Technical Rally Stunted by AGA Data
The futures market continued to spike higher at Nymex yesterday,adding to advances that have lifted the October contract 36.3 centssince last week. October finished the day up 11.8 cents to settleat $2.241. In doing so, natural gas futures set a new daily volumerecord with an estimated 142,867 contracts changing hands.
Futures Spike in Technical Correction
The futures market wasted little time in continuing higherMonday, gapping higher on the open en route to a technicalcorrection that left the September contract up 16.4 cents to settleat $2.041. Sources said Monday’s rally was follow-through buying onthe heels of Friday’s strong close coupled with “nervousspeculators” covering sizeable short positions. Estimated volumeconfirmed the active trading with an estimated 83,239 contractschanging hands.