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A spate of selling followed Thursday’s runaway 36-cent screen rise, as traders took profits ahead of the weekend and July natural gas futures sank 13.6 cents to close at $5.805 Friday. Meanwhile the 12-month strip slipped 8.4 cents to close at $5.821. At 60,140, estimated volume was weak.

Eastern markets proved unable to sustain the bullishness of the day before and registered drops ranging from a nickel to 20 cents or so Wednesday. Thanks to heavy air conditioning load in some sections and supply issues, however, the West was able to keep its numbers flat to up more than 20 cents in the Rockies.

Increasingly muddled technicals and fundamentals played to a stalemate Wednesday as natural gas futures traders failed to propel prices very far from the $5.00 mark. At the closing bell, the front months made small advances while the winter 2003/04 strip ebbed slightly. April finished at $5.097, up 2 cents for the session on its penultimate trading day. May, which will take over as prompt month when April goes off the board Thursday, notched a 3-cent gain to close at $5.147.

Unable to find a partner with liquidity and stature to boost its own, Dynegy Inc. is winding down contracts and closing down its formerly extensive marketing and trading offices in the United States, Canada and Europe. The former market-maker has mapped a future on the assets it still holds, and will operate them within four entities: power generation, natural gas liquids, regulated energy delivery and communication.

Despite a substantial amount of near-winter weather lingering in the Midwest and Northeast market areas, softer cash prices Wednesday showed conclusively that the early-week rally had run out of steam. A few scattered points were flat to barely lower, but otherwise losses ranged up to about 30 cents at the PG&E citygate. Most decreases were around a dime or less, however.

For the fourth week in a row, the natural gas futures market was unable to eke out much follow-through on the heels of a big move Thursday. However, in sharp contrast to the weeks ending July 26 and Aug. 2, when prices finished on a bearish note, the last two weeks have ended on a decidedly positive note, as traders have resisted the temptation to take profits ahead of the weekend. At $3.149, the September contract ended Friday up 2.2 cents for the day, and 40.4 cents for the week.

Similar to other recent forays above the $3.00 mark, Wednesday’s price surge in the natural gas pit at Nymex was short-lived as locals and speculative accounts liquidated new longs and reinitiated short positions. After topping out at $3.04 at 10:15 a.m. EDT, the September contract shuffled lower throughout the session, ending down 6.5 cents at $2.91. Estimated volume was moderate, with 93,329 contracts changing hands.

Williams was unable to match its performance from last year’s first quarter when there were significantly higher energy prices. Net income in the first quarter fell 46% as it faced not only lower prices, but also the expected bankruptcy of its former communications unit (WCG filed for Chapter 11 protection last week) and the sale of one of its large pipeline systems to lower its debt and placate the credit rating agencies.

After twice failing to break to a new seven-week daily continuation chart high, natural gas futures tumbled lower in the last 75 minutes of trading Thursday as commercial and local traders took profits notched during the bull run of the last 10 days. The April contract was the hardest hit by the late sell-off, giving back 7 cents for the session to close at $2.357. The out months slipped as well but by a lesser degree, which served to widen the market’s forward carry premium.