Spikes

While a number of market participants believe that noncommercial traders are responsible for natural gas futures price spikes and the high level of volatility swirling throughout the market, Tom Saal, a broker with Commercial Brokerage Corp. in Miami, believes the allegations are false.

While a number of market participants believe that noncommercial traders are responsible for natural gas futures price spikes and the high level of volatility swirling throughout the market, Tom Saal, a broker with Commercial Brokerage Corp. in Miami, believes the allegations are false.

With super-cold weather not yet arrived but on the way, Northeast citygates soared Thursday, with some points rising a dollar or more. But otherwise there wasn’t much price strength to be found in trading for the long holiday weekend. Gulf Coast numbers were mixed, and quotes for the Midcontinent/Midwest and West fell uniformly.

Top officials at the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) are voicing concerns over a recent run up in wholesale power prices in the state and, in particular, the electric wholesale market activities of TXU Corp.

In a next-trading-day response to Wednesday’s triple-digit increase in December futures that was beefed up by rising heating demand in several market areas, swing prices for last-day-of-November flows skyrocketed Monday by triple-digit amounts themselves virtually across the board. Some points, mostly in the West, racked up increases of more than $2.

In a next-trading-day response to Wednesday’s triple-digit increase in December futures that was beefed up by rising heating demand in several market areas, swing prices for last-day-of-November flows skyrocketed Monday by triple-digit amounts themselves virtually across the board. Some points, mostly in the West, racked up increases of more than $2.

The natural gas market’s ability to soar nearly $2/MMBtu in the span of a couple weeks despite near record high levels of working gas in storage is part of an annual pattern that is occurring, said energy consultant Stephen Smith of Natchez, MS-based Stephen Smith Energy Associates.

Instead of riding the coattails of prior-day spikes in energy futures higher, as some sources had expected, the cash market started paying more attention again to weak fundamentals Wednesday. The result was price declines ranging from about a nickel to nearly 40 cents in the East, with a couple of flat to barely lower points thrown into the mix.

Crude oil futures continued their recent record-setting ways Tuesday, jumping more than a dollar to $51.09/bbl — the first daily settlement ever above $51. And although some natural gas traders may have felt it was akin to comparing apples with oranges, gas in both its physical and Nymex forms tried to emulate petroleum’s strength as best it could.