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Gold/Mining/Energy : Big Dog's Boom Boom Room -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: quehubo who wrote (31676)	4/22/2004 4:30:29 PM
From: Ed Ajootian	Respond to of 206191

DJ. Nymex Gas Futures End Higher But Lag Oil Complex By Spencer Jakab Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Natural gas futures prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange failed to respond to a major rally in crude oil and refined products but managed to produce a modest gain for the third day in a row. May natural gas futures rose by 4.1 cents to $5.623 per million British thermal units, closing near its high for the day. Meanwhile, crude oil futures rallied almost a dollar and unleaded gasoline futures touched an all-time high. "Today was a little unusual - the market was sympathetic to crude but didn't follow through," said Guy Gleichmann, president of United Strategic Investors Group. "Crude had a very minimal impact." The day's key event, the release of natural gas inventory data by the Energy Information Administration, had virtually no impact on the market. "To me, the number was a non-event," said Gleichmann. The agency reported a build of 28 billion cubic feet from inventories, in line with the 27 Bcf consensus in a Dow Jones survey. Following the most recent data, natural gas storage stands 5.8% below the five-year average level, a slightly wider gap than the previous week. The surplus over a year ago has narrowed but is still considerable at 375 Bcf. Based on Enercast.com's forecast for next week's storage build of 15 Bcf this gap should continue to narrow as the build for the same week of 2003 was 52 Bcf. Traders seem to be split on their view of the direction of natural gas futures. Some are skeptical that prices can be sustained at such historically high levels given signs of a strong injection season, while others warn of the potential for a hot summer, as some influential meteorologists are beginning to predict, and its impact on prices. "I'm seeing from all quadrants the potential for a very explosive rally this summer," said Gleichmann. "A lot of people are going to get caught with their pants down." But Tom Saal of Commercial Brokerage Corp. is skeptical that injection season prices roughly 70 cents above last year's actual settlement prices for the same period, when inventories started from a much lower point, can be sustained. The back months also rose moderately Thursday. June futures were 3.8 cents higher at $5.70/MMBtu, and July futures were 4.1 cents higher at $5.773/MMBtu. Physical gas moved up in line with Nymex, retaining only a very small discount going in to bid week. The benchmark Henry Hub traded in a range of $5.53-$5.60/MMBtu versus $5.49-$5.55/MMBtu Wednesday. -By Spencer Jakab, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-4377; spencer.jakab@dowjones.com