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Financial In Market If the law of supply and demand really drives commodity prices, then something seems amiss in the natural gas market.

Prices Rise By VOA News U.S. oil prices rose in early New York trading after saboteurs forced Iraq to stop shipments from its largest oil export facility. Visit our AXcess News Forum and add your comments on this story. Try your hand at writing, the best story will be published on our news network. Take our business poll too! Print This Page June 15, 2004 (AXcess News) U.S. oil prices rose in early New York trading after saboteurs forced Iraq to stop shipments from its largest oil export facility.

Oriental Trading Natural gas futures are trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at prices roughly 50 percent higher than they were a year ago, even though government data show that demand has declined and pre-winter storage levels are well above historical norms. This is in stark contrast with the oil market, where prices are higher amid global output limitations and unexpectedly strong consumption.

The price rise will be effective from 1st April 2006 for all customers except those with the "Gas Guardian" plan. npower's online plan is also not affected by the price rise. The price rise follows a recent spate of price rises including EDF Energy, British Gas, ScottishPower and Powergen, whose prices rise in March. uSwitch.com has updated the prices for npower plans in our gas and electricity comparison and switching service.

Financial Forex Forex Software The rise in natural gas prices has coincided with a big increase in trading by hedge funds and other speculators. And in a letter being sent today to lawmakers, an organization representing industrial users of gas says the market has become vulnerable to manipulation.

(AXcess News) A cold winter weather streak in the U.S. is fueling higher heating oil prices in New York Wednesday as NYMEX traders eased heating oil prices higher .0105 cents at $1.847 a gallon by late afternoon after reaching $1.90 a gallon in early trading. Crude oil futures for December delivery were off 57 cents, but still over $60 a barrel at $60.80. Natural gas traded down 67 cent per thousand feet at $14.70 and gasoline was down .0049 cents at $1.641.

Trading Whatever the cause, homeowners who rely on natural gas are feeling the pinch: The Energy Department predicts they will spend on average $1,000 this winter on heating bills, a 15 percent increase.

With a colder season than the region had seen in a few years and concern about the fuel supply, prices rose in the early months this year, causing concern about future supplies. "A year ago people thought the sky would fall, " said Eric DeGesero, vice president of the Fuel Merchants Association of New Jersey. "But we had a normal winter, and the sky did not fall. The price was stable, not peaking."

Trading Financial System So are manufacturers of chemicals, plastics and resins, for whom natural gas is both a raw material and an energy source. They are complaining to Congress about their fuel costs after a steep rise in prices in September and October.

Additionally, yesterday the GBP continued to trade steadily above the 2.0000 levels despite PPI Core Output slightly down on expectations only maintain the GBP strengthen against the majors. UK Jun PPI output prices rose 2.4%yr, unchanged from May. Input prices rose 2.1%yr. The BoE is concerned about firms raising their output prices in order to widen margins, m increase in output prices in 6 months (0.2%).

Day Trading The jump in natural gas prices has not received as much media attention as the oil-price run-up, but consumer advocates and industry groups say it is more troubling. Most natural gas pumped to American factories and homes is produced domestically and should not be as vulnerable to the geopolitical turmoil that has roiled oil markets.

Forex Financial Trading The "The natural gas market price is no longer being set by consumers' demands for the physical supply of gas," Paul Cicio, the executive director of the Industrial Energy Consumers of America, said in a letter to be sent today to members of Congress. "Instead of the market serving the greater public good, it serves the investment interests of ever-growing unregulated billion-dollar hedge funds that are completely disconnected from the consumer and manufacturing market."

Fortune Make Option Trading Cicio's organization represents companies including Dow Chemical Co., Bayer Corp., and BASF Corp. He said Nymex needs to place tighter controls on intraday volatility, reduce the number of natural gas contracts any single trading entity can own and give more enforcement responsibilities to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Science Of Financial Market Relaxed federal oversight has helped turn Nymex into an environment that is too friendly to speculators and "susceptible to manipulation," Cicio said.

Future Trading Nymex Holdings Inc. is the parent of the world's largest energy futures exchange, whose members include brokerages such as ABN Amro Inc., trading units of energy producers such as El Paso Merchant Energy and investments banks such as Goldman Sachs & Co. The exchange's new president, James E. Newsome, is the former chairman of the commodities panel.

Financial Sales Services Nymex Holdings earned $11.6 million in the first half of the year on revenues of $109.7 million. But judging by the $2 million paid in the most recent sale of a seat on the exchange in October, its members' earnings potential is even higher.

Commodity Trading Average daily trading volume for natural gas futures has surged 16-fold over the past 10 years, Nymex data show. By comparison, oil futures trading volume has doubled over the same period.

Financial Services Trading At the same time, commercial traders - utilities and industrial consumers who use futures markets to hedge against price movements in the spot market - are not as dominant in the market as they once were. The proportion of non-commercial traders such as hedge funds and individual speculators fluctuated at the Nymex in the mid to late 1990s, but has trended steadily higher since 2001, CFTC data show.

Online Forex Trading For example, in November 2001 non-commercial traders accounted for about 10 percent of big holders of multiple gas contracts. They now account for nearly 40 percent.

Financial Portfolio Trade Critics say the proliferation of non-commercial trading is a major reason why natural gas prices have become so volatile.

Sierra Trading Post Nachamah Jacobovits, a Nymex spokeswoman, said it's the reverse: Increased volatility is luring more traders to the market, including both speculators and commercial entities seeking to offset their risk in the spot market. "People who don't hedge get hurt," Jacobovits said.

Trading Financial Future "There's no question that natural gas is a very volatile market," Jacobovits said, but "we have a great deal of resources devoted to monitoring it."

Forex Trading Software Indeed, the CFTC, in coordination with Nymex, completed in August a seven-month investigation into surging natural gas prices last winter and concluded there was no evidence that markets were manipulated.

Trading Post The agency said prices rose sharply - above $7 per 1,000 cubic feet in December 2003 - because of colder-than-expected weather in the Northeast and predictions made prior to the home-heating season that U.S. inventories of natural gas would be tight.

Trading System Although some energy analysts argue there is a complicated logic underpinning today's soaring natural gas prices, others point to market speculation, pure and simple.

Forex Trading System By Brad Foss
Associated Press - 11/17/2004

Topic: Petroleum Industry

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