Steeper

The downhill run for cash prices got a little steeper Wednesday, and any potential leveling off space remained beyond the horizon. Declines tended to range from about a nickel to 15 cents, but most were a dime or more. Once again, Rockies pipes either experienced less softening than the general market or even ranged from flat to a smidgen higher in a few cases as the region remained a bit warmer than most of the nation, although a mild cooling trend was under way.

The downhill slope for end-of-January swing prices Tuesday wasabout as slippery as any of the icy roads in parts of the Midwestand Northeast. Despite such conditions that normally would helpprop up gas prices, it was a rare point failing to drop less than50 cents, and most of the declines ranged from 70 to 90 cents.

Even with much of its cold weather support disappearing, thecash market still found cause for moderate bullishness Wednesday.But that’s expected to pale in comparison to the fireworks thatsources were predicting for today after the screen exploded withgains of more than 35 cents in both the November and Decembercontracts following AGA’s below-expectations storage report.

As sources had predicted a day earlier, the downturn in cashprices got even steeper Thursday, primarily due to the big futuresdrop on the previous afternoon and what was considered by many tobe a rather bearish storage report. A gradual warming trend inseveral regions was not strong enough to prompt significant newcooling load for gas.

Cash prices were unable to sustain this week’s earlier upwardmomentum and were turning modestly softer Wednesday. Severalsources expected declines to grow greater today since most of thescreen’s dive of nearly a dime Wednesday followed release of AGA’sstorage report, well after cash trading had been completed.

The slippery slope on which cash prices started sliding earlierthis week got steeper Thursday. As on Wednesday, the softness wasbeing felt in both the late-February incremental and March bidweekmarkets.