Vogue

With service costs once again escalating onshore, “joint ventures are still in vogue” and some producers are prowling for investors, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey/Gerdes Group (STRH) said this week.

Mixed price movement was back in vogue Wednesday in trading for first-of-November flows. Market-area weather trends tended to dictate where gains or losses occurred in some cases, but there were also some anomalies. The cash market continued to have a little prior-day screen support from Tuesday’s 4.7-cent advance by December futures.

So much for those who expected Thursday’s general flatness toremain in vogue for a while. Chilly Pacific Northwest points(Sumas, Stanfield and Kingsgate) constituted the only regionalmarket where flat quotes continued to prevail Friday, whileelsewhere most prices ranged from mildly lower to down about 20cents. California again registered much greater declines than theoverall market.

After a lengthy absence, “following the screen” was back invogue Friday among trader explanations for cash market movement.”How else are you going to justify rising Northeast prices for whatis normally a lower-demand weekend period?” asked a largeaggregator. A stormy front was moving beyond the East Coast intothe Atlantic, but the temperatures it left behind were still on themild side for December, he observed.

Traders resurrected a phrase they hadn’t been using very muchlately: “following the screen.” Like a rising tide that lifts allboats, the Henry Hub futures contract for September turned in astrong performance Wednesday and spurred moderate firmness in cashnumbers. In the absence of substantial change in marketfundamentals, there was little besides the Nymex pit for cashguidance, a marketer said.

“Following the screen”-a market catch-phrase that hasn’t been asmuch in vogue in recent weeks as it used to be-regained popularityMonday as cash prices had little else on which to base modestfirming. New quotes ranged from essentially flat in the Californiaand Northeast markets to as much as a nickel or so higher at pointssuch as the Chicago citygate and El Paso-San Juan (Blanco). Withweather in most areas staying mild and the storage situation stillbearish, it’s hard to see where else beside futures that cash couldhave derived any strength, sources said.