Traders

Despite a Wednesday afternoon storage report that many tradersconsidered modestly bullish, most prices fell by up to a nickelThursday. California and a few Rockies and South Texas points, withflat to slightly higher showings, defied the overall trend.

As traders had expected, prices used Thursday afternoon’s andFriday morning’s futures strength as a springboard to achieveincreases that were mostly between a nickel and a dime Friday.

Natural gas futures finished on a sour note Wednesday as tradersalleviated overbought conditions and took profits both before andafter the release of fresh storage data. After opening lower, theApril contract worked its way down throughout much of the sessionbefore tumbling at the closing bell to finish at $2.71. The promptmonth’s 8.9-cent decline was trumped only by the May contract,which dropped 9 cents to finish as $2.747. Estimated volume wasmodest with only 63,810 contracts changing hands.

Traders finally came to view the cash market Thursday much aspolice would view a vagrant: they’re suspicious of somethingwithout visible means of support. The result was predictable asprices fell anywhere from 2-3 cents at a few Gulf Coast points to15 cents or more in the Rockies/Pacific Northwest.

Following a three-day, 25-cent price spike, the natural gasmarket cooled its heels Thursday as traders took profits amidtechnically overbought conditions and ahead of the weekend. After alate morning push failed to surpass Wednesday’s $2.78 high, sellerscame out of the woodwork to deliver the March contract a dime lowerto $2.659.

Fresh off a neat, 13-cent gain Monday, the futures marketrumbled higher yesterday as fundamental traders braced for asizable storage withdrawal today and technicians set their sightson resistance levels from late last year.

It was time to get out the smelling salts again Tuesday torevive traders swooning from the altitude of Northeast citygates.Quote averages zoomed higher by more than $2 at a few points, andone source reported hearing that intra-day numbers for deliveriesinto the Boston area via Tennessee and Algonquin peaked at $10.

Traders sweating out the warm winter and wondering how they’regoing to get rid of surplus storage can take heart from a newanalysts report that sees 27,000 MW of natural gas-fired powergeneration capacity being added in the next 12 months.

Traders sweating out the warm winter and wondering how they’regoing to get rid of surplus storage can take heart from a newanalysts report that sees 27,000 MW of natural gas-fired powergeneration capacity being added in the next 12 months.