Watching

After watching prices gyrate wildly for the last several months,traders were looking forward to a nice, quiet, last trading sessionof the year Friday at Nymex. After all, who would want to propelprices dramatically higher or lower in an abbreviated tradingsession just before the holidays? As a result, prices wouldprobably just chop lazily sideways, allowing traders the time tocatch up on paperwork, right?

Pennsylvania-based PPL Corp. apparently has been watching itsfair share of westerns as it seems the company has recently takenon a “Go West” theme. This is evidenced by the company’s plans tobuild 1,800 MW of new electricity generation on the left coast atan estimated development cost of $900 million.

After watching the market tumble almost 85 cents from its highsin just a week and a half, bargain hunters were back at it againMonday, lifting natural gas prices back above the psychologicallyimportant $5.00 level. After checking down to $4.86 and etching itslowest mark since Sept. 1, the November contract rallied late inthe session to close 13.5 cents higher at $5.072.

After watching prices tumble 10% last week, bears in the naturalgas pit were content to cool their heels Friday in an amazinglyquiet trading session. The November contract slumped just 1.4 centsto close at $4.937 Friday after trading within a tight, 13-centtrading range. Estimated volume was light, with just 63,929contracts changing hands.

What a difference a week can make. After watching helplessly asprices plumbed fresh two and a half months lows last Wednesday,bulls at Nymex were back at the helm yesterday and with the help ofa neutral to slightly bullish storage report were successfuldriving prices up 5.7%. The prompt month experienced it secondstraight advance of more than 20-cents, bubbling 22.7 cents higherto finish at $4.214.

After watching the market slip a whopping 10% in a fierce Mondaysell-off, bulls dug in their heels yesterday and were successfulavoiding July’s first sub-$4.00 settlement since June 7. Afterprobing to its $3.96 low on the day, the prompt month received awave of bargain-hunting that lifted it to a $4.107 close, up 4.4cents for the session.

After watching the market tumble 7.1 cents lower Monday, naturalgas bulls at the New York Mercantile exchange dug in their heelsyesterday as prices careened off support in the low $2.70s andmoved higher throughout the session. By virtue of its 3.7-centadvance and $2.751 settlement, the April contract nudged its wayback up well within the $2.67-90 trading range that has limitedprice movement since March 1. The May contract followed suit,trading up 3.7 cents to finish at $2.781, in a session that sawmoderate activity of 57,862.

You could have got a nose bleed watching gas futures yesterday.A 1.5-cent gap higher to $2.700/MMBtu at the opening bell triggereda buying panic that sent October Henry Hub futures up 23.9 cents to$2.851. Estimated volume came in at a massive 116,601 contracts.

After watching prices tumble 10 cents in a tumultuous last hourof trading Thursday, bulls were quick to assume control of themarket Friday as they continued to add to their already hefty longpositions. The September contract finished at $2.698, up 5.1 centsfor the day and 15.5 for the week.