Upticks

The spate of colder weather in the Midwest and Northeast that had generated upticks at nearly all points in the previous two days began to lose its price-boosting ability Thursday. Only the Northeast, where high temperatures are predicted to stay at the freezing level or below Friday and into the weekend, continued to see substantially higher prices Thursday. Except for small gains at a couple of scattered non-Northeast points, the rest of the market was flat to just a tad softer.

With the exception of a few upticks, the cash market responded as expected Wednesday with declines ranging from about a nickel to more than 80 cents. The West, which had been firmer than other market areas in the first couple of days of the week, led the shift in the other direction with most of Wednesday’s largest losses.

With the exception of a few upticks, the cash market responded as expected Wednesday with declines ranging from about a nickel to more than 80 cents. The West, which had been firmer than other market areas in the first couple of days of the week, led the shift in the other direction with most of Wednesday’s largest losses.

Instead of riding the coattails of prior-day spikes in energy futures higher, as some sources had expected, the cash market started paying more attention again to weak fundamentals Wednesday. The result was price declines ranging from about a nickel to nearly 40 cents in the East, with a couple of flat to barely lower points thrown into the mix.

Modest upticks in cash prices continued to prevail Thursday, but signs of a weakening market were evident. None of the gains were greater than 7-8 cents, and more points were seeing either flatness or lower numbers. The hot weather in the South and West that had lent a modicum of support to Wednesday’s prices was waning a bit, and the 7.2-cent screen gain on Wednesday may have been the only thing averting overall softness Thursday.

Continued Nymex upticks Friday following Thursday’s energy futures spikes proved strong enough to offset generally mild weather forecasts and rally weekend cash prices at nearly all points.

The cash market separated on a rough geographical split in Friday’s trading for the weekend, with eastern points tending to range from flat to 20 cents higher, while flat to barely lower numbers in the unusually sultry Pacific Northwest belied overall western softness in which losses went as high as about half a dollar.

Rockies points abandoned their contrarian softness tendency from the day before and joined the overall market in across-the-board price gains Tuesday in response to wintry weather engulfing most of the U.S. and Canada. Once again the icy Northeast led the upward charge with varied gains ranging from about a quarter (Texas Eastern M-3) to more than a dollar (Tennessee Zone 6). Otherwise, increases ran from a nickel to a little more than a quarter.

The cash market continued to build on the weekend price gains with new upticks Monday that were generally in single digits at most eastern points but ranged from about a dime to more than 40 cents (San Juan-Blanco) in the Northeast and much of the West.