Futures relatively stable as storms pop up
It is scary to think that a four cent swing in gas futures can be termed as "relatively stable". A somewhat surprising storm popped up in the Gulf of Mexico region this morning that caused the evacuations of most platforms in the area and had many investors buying up the storm premium ahead of the long weekend. Both products early in the morning were trading down almost 3 cents and only HO was able to remain in the red. Also churning out in the Atlantic is presently a CAT 3 hurricane Katia, expected to hit the east coast again sometime late next week. This, on the heels of many East Coast terminals just now coming back on line after Irene. Expect to see some wild cash moves in the harbor. As mentioned, RBOB was able to gain .0164 to settle at $2.8927, surprising given the current product situation in the northeast and expected storms. HEAT fell .0322 to $3.0518, most of which came in the last 20 minutes of the session while WTI added a mere 12 cents to $88.93. How much of the day is due to the seasonal product switch and cleansing of books will play out on Friday. Other news has unemployment figures to be flat for August, and have European manufacturing rates sliding, both kept the pits in check most of the day. Looking back on August, HO started the month off at 3.1360 and closed at 3.084, but after hitting a low 2.70, once again proving that historically it is the most volatile trading months, relatively speaking of course