PIPE DREAMS:

Oil stocks slide as crude, gas plunge (Lisa Sanders, 12/02/04, CBS.MarketWatch.com)

The Energy Department said natural gas supplies for the week ended Nov. 19 fell 17 billion cubic feet, not 49 billion as originally reported a week ago. For the week ended Nov. 26, domestic supplies fell 5 billion cubic feet to 3.299 trillion cubic feet -- 204 billion above the year-ago level, and up 331 billion cubic feet from the five-year average, the government data said.

Bearish sentiment prevailed in the crude market on Wednesday after the Energy Department and American Petroleum Institute reported increases in both crude and distillate supplies. [...]

In commodities dealings, January natural gas declined by 60.2 cents, or 8.1 percent, to close at $6.811 per million British thermal units. January crude closed at $43.25 a barrel, down $2.24, or 5 percent. See full story.

"The party for financial speculators calling for ever rising crude prices seems to have come to an abrupt halt, at least temporarily," said Prabhas Panigrahi, managing director of research at Ehrenkrantz King Nussbaum, in a note to clients.

If you didn't know better you'd swear markets work.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 2, 2004 8:08 PM