Market'Bearish as It Gets'Despite Impending Cold Wave

摘要

Unseasonably cold weather forecast for large swaths of the US did little to bolster gas futures prices last week,signaling that robust supply continues to exert downward pressure on the market regardless of seasonal demand spikes.The March Nymex contract,which took the prompt month position Thursday,fell ioc Friday to settle at $2.564 per million Btu.While that marked a 4.4% gain for the week,it was nearly 20c below where the February contract expired just two days earlier and remained far shy of the $3 many analysts had expected to see by now.February rolled off the board Wednesday with a 10.4c,or 3.9%,rally to settle at $2.76/MMBtu due to a shot of cold weather in major upper tier markets,but it was obvious from the March contract's gaping discount to April that bulls had thrown in the towel on the heating season.