Except for 90-degree-plus high temperatures in parts of the West, fundamental weather demand remained subpar in most markets Thursday. Yet cash prices managed to solidify and strengthen the mild rally that had begun the previous day.

Not only did gains get bigger at most points, but small losses of just under a nickel were limited Thursday to only Dracut and Algonquin citygates in New England. Increases ranged from about 3 cents to nearly a quarter, with a large majority of them on either side of a dime.

Once again it was a struggle to explain the market’s firmness in the face of limited weather-related demand outside the southwestern quadrant of the U.S. Recent and new cold fronts kept the Midwest and Northeast feeling more like it was mid-spring rather than early summer, and widespread, sustained thunderstorms have prevented much of the South from rising to normal heat levels for this time of year.

Lacking a weather rationale, one source said he was forced to guess that recent screen gains, however moderate, and anticipation of a bullish storage report were the chief factors behind the new upticks.

The pipelines were buying in Texas Thursday, but the utilities weren’t, according to an intrastate trader. Permian Basin/Waha gas must have been going west to battle the heat in the desert Southwest, he said, because neither Texas nor the Midcontinent/Midwest had much use for it. A prolonged siege of thunderstorms have kept temperatures in the Lone Star state unusually mild for late June, he said. Also, another Texas barrier at Waha was there being no available takeaway capacity on Oasis, the trader added.

Florida was one of the few eastern areas where air conditioning load remains substantial. Noting that market-area highs are staying in the 90s, Florida Gas Transmission tightened the negative imbalance tolerance of a long-running Overage Alert Day notice to 15% again Thursday after having left it at 25% for several days.

The Energy Information Administration tossed a small bone to bullish types by reporting a storage injection of 85 Bcf for the week ending June 18. The figure was toward the low end of the range of prior expectations, and fell a whopping 42 Bcf short of the 127 Bcf year-ago build. Although some argued that anticipation of a moderately bullish report had already been factored into market psychology beforehand, the screen took the opportunity to pad its rising streak into a third day, tacking on another 7 cents to $6.485.

Noting that futures had moved up and down within a 10-cent range, a western buyer said San Juan numbers for July pretty much followed suit, going from $5.50 early to the upper $5.50s and then back down to their $5.50 starting point. However, Permian Basin prices just seemed to strengthen, winding up with a bid-ask spread of $6.025-06, he said.

A marketer who said he was nearly finished with bidweek business already reported doing Houston Ship Channel deals Thursday at basis of minus 10-9 cents, adding that the trend was toward weaker prices. He also traded Katy at the Ship Channel index minus 1-3 cents.

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