Succumbed

The cash market finally succumbed to the realities of generally light weather-based demand and the further shrinkage of storage injection options by recording sizeable declines almost across the board Thursday. The November futures contract’s return to losing ways Wednesday following a scant one-day rally Tuesday was a further bearish influence.

After a string of nearly all gains previously in the week, cash prices finally succumbed Friday to generally moderate weather-based demand and the previous day’s futures dip of 15.3 cents. Quotes were down at all points but one. The weekend decline of industrial load added to the general bearishness.

The cash market succumbed to a growing dearth of cooling load in the Midwest, Northeast and Canada by dropping at most points Tuesday. It also felt negative pressure from the previous day’s 16.1-cent decline by August futures.

With negative pressures continuing to bear down on the market, cash prices finally succumbed Friday by posting sizeable losses at all points. Cooling load would be growing even scarcer over the weekend, the screen had dropped more than a quarter the day before, bearish storage signals were surfacing again, and the industrial load decline over a weekend came into play.

Near-month gas futures came out of the gate relatively strong Monday and posted their daily high of $6.780 just after 1 p.m., but the contract succumbed to hard selling pressure immediately after the daily high and proceeded to drop more than 25 cents in just a few minutes of trading. September ended the day down 10.7 cents at $6.624. October was off 12.1 cents to $6.730, and December lost a quarter to end at $10.170.

Following four days of impressive strength, cash prices finally succumbed Friday to dwindling weather-based load, a prior-day screen decline of 12.8 cents and the usual decline of industrial demand associated with a weekend. Large declines across the board ranged from about 20 cents to a little more than 60 cents.

As expected (see Daily GPI, Oct. 21), all of the cash market succumbed Friday to a bearish storage report, prior-day futures weakness, a dearth of weather-based demand and a weekend slump in industrial load. Price drops ranged from about 20 cents to more than a dollar. The biggest declines were concentrated in the Midcontinent and West.

As sources had expected, the cash market succumbed to weak weather fundamentals and dwindling energy futures support Tuesday by staging a major retreat. Virtually all points saw double-digit declines ranging from about 15 cents to half a dollar or so

Futures succumbed to another major technical correctionyesterday as the July contract gapped 2.5 cents lower at the openand dropped a dime early on before plummeting after the AGA gasstorage report came out at 2 p.m. At the end of the regular tradingsession, July was down 34.9 cents, August had dropped 35.1 centsand September was off 33.1 cents. The July contract had a 39-centrange for the day, trading as high as $4.335 and as low as $3.930.