Straying

It was kind of a doldrums-type market Thursday, with flat quotes at many points and none of the other ones straying more than about a nickel up or down. Spotty returns of chillier weather in some areas, along with the previous day’s futures uptick of 4.3 cents, assured that small gains handily outweighed the rare small loss.

The cash market was close to evenly divided on rising and falling numbers Monday, with a majority of points straying no further than about a nickel in either direction from unchanged.

Thursday’s cash market was almost a repeat of the one the day before, with few points straying more than a few pennies up or down from flat. Many were unchanged from Wednesday averages as retreating cooling load in the Northeast and Midwest reached a virtual tie with a modest prior-day futures advance in influencing cash numbers.

The January aftermarket started out strongly relative to end-of-December numbers, but without straying too far from apparent first-of-month index levels. Nearly all of the swing movement ranged from flat to about 20 cents higher, but gains tended to get much bigger at Northeast citygates, topped off by an advance of more than a dollar at the Transco Zone 6-NYC pool.

Most of the cash market leveled off Wednesday, with few pointsstraying more than a penny or two to either side of flatness. TheRockies, where weather is currently chilliest, recorded most of thegains of 3 or more cents. Although the screen eventually achieved again of more than 3 cents, cash had only moderate softness infutures as a morning influence.