Tossed

By a very slim margin Thursday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) voted to appeal a federal court ruling that tossed out the agency’s controversial final rule aimed at limiting speculative trading in the swaps market.

More than 50 municipalities across upstate New York’s Finger Lakes region that touch the Marcellus Shale are asking a state appeals court for permission to weigh in on whether they may ban oil and natural gas drilling within their jurisdictions.

In a major victory for market speculators, a federal court in Washington, DC, Friday tossed out the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s controversial final rule aimed at limiting speculative trading in the swaps market.

In a major victory for market speculators, a federal court in Washington, DC, late Friday tossed out the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s controversial final rule aimed at limiting speculative trading in the swaps market.

What had been only a moderately soft market Wednesday with mostly single-digit losses and some western gains tossed into the mix appeared to be turning into a near-rout Thursday as fairly large double-digit losses extended across the board. A continuing dearth of weather-based demand — in either the form of cooling or heating — was abetted by a prior-day futures decline of 3.4 cents in quashing cash quotes.

Commissioner Bart Chilton of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), whose name is being tossed about as possible CFTC chairman in the incoming Obama administration, says he agrees that the agency should move aggressively to oversee clearing of credit default swaps (CDS), a form of insurance against the default of debt securities, which have contributed to the tumult in the credit markets.

Aquila Inc. tossed overboard a significant amount of excess baggage last Tuesday by exiting a power purchase agreement in Batesville, MS, and terminating another long-term prepaid natural gas supply contract. Both of the deals were a drain on liquidity and exiting them is part of the company’s ongoing repositioning program aimed at getting out of the merchant energy business.

Aquila Inc. tossed overboard a significant amount of excess baggage on Tuesday by exiting a power purchase agreement in Batesville, MS, and terminating another long-term prepaid natural gas supply contract. Both of the deals were a drain on liquidity and exiting them is part of the company’s ongoing repositioning program aimed at getting out of the merchant energy business.

A federal court in Ohio has tossed out claims that American Electric Power (AEP) failed to disclose that traders had reported false information on natural gas trades to index publishers.