Wave

Riding the wave of higher commodity prices, Houston producers Burlington Resources Inc., Apache Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp. all reported jumps in second quarter net income when compared to the same quarter last year.

Riding the wave of higher commodity prices, Houston producers Burlington Resources Inc., Apache Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp. all reported jumps in second quarter net income when compared to the same quarter last year.

Buoyed by the one-two combination of cold weather forecasts and a pipeline rupture in Illinois, natural gas futures ascended rapidly Monday as traders let emotion rule the trading session. After peaking at a new contract high of $5.81, the March contract came within striking distance of the 23-month prompt month high of $5.85 set Jan. 23 by the February contract. March closed at $5.766 Monday, up 16.1 cents for the session.

A few flat to modestly higher points were arrayed against a wave of further declines Wednesday. Northeast citygates led the way lower with drops that exceeded half a dollar in some cases, although elsewhere the softness was considerably milder with numbers down between 2-3 cents and about a quarter.

Riding the wave of a decidedly bullish storage report and a prompt-month futures contracts that settled above $5.00 on the previous day for the first time since late April 2001, prices wound up an already strong week with further advances at most points Friday. Only San Juan/Rockies numbers, which have frequently moved contrary to the overall market in recent weeks, succumbed to weekend softening.

Having been eyewitnesses to a wave of debt rating downgrades, anemic wholesale power prices and the collapse of the once-mighty Enron over the past year, a majority of power industry executives recently surveyed don’t expect the sector to rebound until 2004 at the earliest.

Modest to large gains in the Rockies and San Juan Basin ran counter to an overall trend Monday of price decreases that in only a few cases varied from a range of about a dime to 20 cents.

Having already experienced a wave of long liquidation (Friday) and a short-covering squeeze (Monday), natural gas futures were left without a major price influence on expiration day Tuesday. Modest, market-on-close selling tipped the scales in bears’ favor in the last 30 minutes of trading. The November contract finished at $4.126, down 5 cents for the session, but 23.7 cents higher than the level from which the market began its tenure as prompt month.

Energy stock prices joined the rising tide on the stock market Monday, with Mirant, Calpine and Dynegy leading the wave with gains of more than 11% for Mirant and close to 9% for Calpine and Mirant. Also having a good day were Williams, Reliant and AES, all up by more than 3%. Other energy suppliers saw rises up to 3%. The only group still recording more losers than winners were natural gas utilities. The stock prices of energy companies have been battered in recent months by low energy prices and the Enron implosion. No one yet is calling it a turnaround point, but there was one positive indicator: Monday was the first day in a looooong time that Enron wasn’t on the front page of The Houston Chronicle or The Washington Post.