Temps

With colder temps already descending on the Midwest and East and forecasts calling for real seasonal cold to impact the East late next week, natural gas futures traders on Wednesday continued to venture higher towards the psychological $7 level. The February natural gas contract put in a high of $6.800 before settling at $6.755, up 12.4 cents on the day and 57.1 cents higher already for the week.

There had been a little doubt about whether the approach of a winter storm in the Midwest/Plains region and colder temperatures in the Northeast and parts of the West would be able to overcome the negativity of screen losses totaling about 60 cents over the course of Thursday and Monday and generate a price rally.

Backing away from the psychological $6 mark, August natural gas futures hit a low of $5.77 in morning trading before making its way back up to settle at $5.818, down 6.9 cents on the day.

Most eastern points were joined by Permian Basin/Waha quotes in continuing to move lower Monday, but non-Permian/Waha markets in the West rallied from what had tended to be the biggest weekend price drops.

While the folks in Boston will remember the bone-chilling cold in mid-January that produced new gas demand records, this winter (December-February) will go down in history as being pretty average overall across the entire nation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

In a trading session book-ended by selling at the open and at the close, the natural gas futures market sunk to new 10-day lows Tuesday as traders continued to side with forecasts calling for a massive warming trend following the current spate of record cold in the Northeast U.S. At 74,623, estimated volume was stronger than it had been of late, adding credibility to the move lower.

Near-term, the potential for “psychologically driven” weakness in natural gas prices and energy stocks exists until signs of cooler winter temperatures appear sometime in October, said Raymond James analysts in their latest “Stat of the Week.”

Near-term, the potential for “psychologically driven” weakness in natural gas prices and energy stocks exists until signs of cooler winter temperatures appear sometime in October, said Raymond James analysts in their latest “Stat of the Week.”

Classifying it as “once-in-30-years type coolness,” Weather 2000 said the eastern third of the United States has been devoid of summer heat and sun during the May-August 2003 period, with no real signs of change on the horizon. The New York City-based forecasting and consulting firm said East Coasters must travel west to America’s heartland to find any signs of summer 2003 warmth.