Spiking

After dropping lower and then spiking higher in its typical post-storage report theatrics, natural gas futures came back to near unchanged Thursday morning, prompting bulls and bears to turn to something other than storage for their next price clues. Without having to search too far, they found favorable medium and long-lead weather forecasts, which quickly translated into higher natural gas futures prices. August closed 10.2 cents higher for the session at $2.943.

After dropping lower and then spiking higher in its typical post-storage report theatrics, natural gas futures came back to near unchanged Thursday morning, prompting bulls and bears to turn to something other than storage for their next price clues. Without having to search too far, they found favorable medium and long-lead weather forecasts, which quickly translated into higher natural gas futures prices. August closed 10.2 cents higher for the session at $2.943.

Buoyed by falling temperatures and spiking cash prices, theprompt natural gas futures contract did what has become almostsecond nature for the commodity this year as it rumbled to a newall-time high Tuesday. In fact, after a strong opening, the onlyquestion to be answered was which month (December or January) wouldset a new high watermark.

With gas prices near $5/MMBtu, oil above $30/bbl and powerprices spiking 700% in Southern California this summer, the signsof struggle in the energy sector are clear. It’s the requiredresponse that still seems a little cloudy.

With gas prices near $5/MMBtu, oil above $30/bbl and powerprices spiking 700% in Southern California this summer, the signsof struggle in the energy sector are clear. It’s the requiredresponse that still seems a little cloudy.

After spiking 7% higher Monday on storm hype, natural gasfutures retraced lower yesterday as traders hedged against thepossibility that the storm will miss the Gulf of Mexico entirely.Before tumbling lower, however, the prompt month was able to carveout a fresh all-time prompt month high at $4.85. The Septembercontract finished on the defensive, down 22.7 cents for the sessionat $4.52.

Northeast citygates continued to scale new price heightsWednesday as the region braced for another onslaught of what isturning out to be the most severe winter storm of the currentseason by far. Transportation-constrained Transco Zone 6-NYC againtopped the price list with quotes that ran as high as $11, and acouple of sources confirmed that the point had already traded forFriday flow at $13.50. Other citygates in the region were allaveraging more than $5 Wednesday.

After spiking as much as 7 cents higher in the Wednesday eveningAccess session, the new prompt month was the focus of muchconjecture and speculation. Would June continue higher, followingthe example set by May, or fall from its already lofty perch? Formany, it is still too early to tell, but if yesterday’s priceaction was any indication, June will have a difficult time matchingMay’s 50-cent price increase over the past month. After opening at$2.40, the June contract tumbled throughout the session to close at$2.339, a 0.2-cent decline from Wednesday’s close.

For the second week in a row, cooler temperatures and spikingcash prices piqued the attention of buyers Monday, prompting shortcovering amid some fresh buying. That enabled the prompt Januarycontract to gap higher on the open, and quickly move to majorresistance at $2.00. But the buying dried up and January was tradedmostly sideways before ticking down at the final bell. Januaryfinished at $1.952, up 9.4 cents for the day.