Wave

Natural gas bulls saved their best for last Friday, as they buoyed prices to a new two-week highs amid a combination of profit-taking and short-covering. After moving steadily higher throughout the session, the January contract spiked at the close to finish the week at $2.846, up an even 9 cents on the day and 27.8 cents above where the contract was the Friday before.

Raymond James & Associates expects another wave of mergers and acquisitions in the wake of the Enron catastrophe, as marketing and trading companies come to the realization that hard physical assets are much more desirable than heavily leveraging a balance sheet to a trading desk.

Cross Timbers Oil Co., riding high on a wave of record earnings and gas production growth, has adopted a new name, XTO Energy Inc., which takes effect June 1. The company will continue to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “XTO.”

Pressured by another wave of follow-through selling, natural gas futures funneled lower for the second day in a row Wednesday, as traders grappled with negative technicals and continued to factor in a bearish storage report. A late rebound trimmed the day’s losses, leaving the prompt May contract with a 10-cent decline at $5.148.

Third quarter earnings for the three largest U.S. oil companies— ExxonMobil, Chevron and Texaco — handily surpassed analysts’expectations on the wave of surging oil and gas prices. ExxonMobilbeat predictions by six cents, Texaco beat the estimates by 12cents and Chevron also soared, rolling over an expected earningsforecast by 54 cents. All three released their quarterly statementsyesterday.

For the second Wednesday in a row, natural gas prices were hitwith a wave of selling seconds after the release of fresh storagenews. However, whereas the market closed on its daily lows lastWednesday, it finished on its highs yesterday as bargain huntinglifted the November contract almost 15 cents above its $5.15 lowWednesday.

After gapping higher on the open and racing to new highs,natural gas futures were hit with a powerful wave of selling latein the session that trimmed most of yesterday’s gains and lefttraders wondering if more selling is in store for the market on itsexpiration day today.

Political repercussions from California’s high-priced heat wavereached all the way to the White House last week as Gov. Gray Davisappealed to President Clinton to pressure the Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission to “accelerate its investigation of wholesaleenergy prices in California.”

Political repercussions from California’s high-priced heat wavereached all the way to Washington’s White House last week as Gov.Gray Davis asked President Clinton to pressure the Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission to “accelerate its investigation of wholesaleenergy prices in California.”