Dec. 4-MAR--
By Robert Gibbons, BridgeNews
New York--Dec. 4--NYMEX natural gas futures were halted at 1027 ET
Monday when the Jan and Feb contracts were "limit-up" for five minutes,
according to brokers. No one from NYMEX could immediately be made
available to confirm.
Trading will resume at 1127 ET, according to brokers. Jan traded up to its
75- cent limit, or 11.24%, to a new all-time high of $7.423 per MM/Btu.
Feb traded up 75c, or 11.48%, to $7.283.
* * *
Brokers said the next limit on the front-month contracts would be
$1.50 when trading resumes.
Cold weather, expectations for Arctic air entering the U.S. from
Canada and U.S. natural gas storage well below last year's levels combined
to spike prices, first in overnight Access trading and then in Monday's
morning session.
Brokers contacted after the halt were looking for profit takers to be
hovering around when trading resumes.
"We've gone up pretty far and fast," said one broker. "We look for it
to stall (after trading resumes)."
"I'd take 'em now," said a trader, citing cold weather, strong wind
chill and high power demand supporting the market. "Power prices in the
Ohio Valley were way up."
Henry Hub next-day natural gas supply was trading at 10c below the
NYMEX price, up substantially from Friday's numbers, according to trading
sources. End |
