Natural gas futures earlier in the day completed the KnovaWave target at 2.6760 before sliding 12 cents pre release. The number saw natty gas fall through the much watched 50 and 40 dma on the hourly chart . EIA-U.S. weekly natgas stocks up 61 bcf .

The U.S. Energy Information Administration issued the following weekly estimates of U.S. working gas in underground storage (in billion cubic feet except where noted):

09:30 17May12 RTRS-EIA-U.S. WEEKLY NATGAS STOCKS UP 61 BCF, VERSUS FORECAST OF 55 BCF BUILD
09:30 17May12 RTRS-EIA-U.S. NATGAS PRODUCING REGION UP 7 BCF IN LATEST WEEK
09:30 17May12 RTRS-EIA-U.S. CONSUMING REGION EAST UP 47 BCF, WEST UP 7 BCF IN LATEST WEEK
09:30 17May12 RTRS-EIA-U.S. SALT DOME CAVERN NATGAS STOCKS OFF 3 BCF

Region 05/11/12 05/04/12 Net Year-Ago
Stocks Stocks Change Stocks
East 1,236 1,189 47 788
West 386 379 7 248
Producing 1,045 1,038 7 857
Salt 238 241 -3 161
Non-Salt 807 797 10 703
Total U.S.* 2,667 2,606 61 1,893


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THE FOMC minutes were released and taken as a sure sign of QE3 and beyond. ES leapt 7 handles and crude about 80 cents. However this was short lived and ES saw new lows within minutes. Bulls in the smell of destruction will take any sniff if they can. Where to from here?

13:00 16May12 RTRS-SEVERAL FOMC MEMBERS IN APRIL SAW NEED FOR ADDITIONAL STIMULUS IF ECONOMY LOSES MOMENTUM OR DOWNSIDE RISKS TO FORECAST BECAME GREAT ENOUGH--FED MINUTES
13:00 16May12 RTRS-FED SAYS ONE FOMC PARTICIPANT SAID WOULD BE APPROPRIATE TO EXTEND OPERATION TWIST
13:00 16May12 RTRS-FED SAYS ABOUT HALF OF FOMC PARTICIPANTS BELIEVE EXCEPTIONALLY LOW FED FUNDS RATE WOULD BE APPROPRIATE AT LEAST UNTIL LATE 2014

Market Dominatrix

Reuters reported the Minutes as follows. U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers kept the door open to a fresh round of monetary stimulus, citing downside risks to a moderately expanding economy, according to minutes for the central bank's April meeting.

Several members of the Fed's policy-setting committee "indicated that additional monetary policy accommodation could be necessary if the economic recovery lost momentum or the downside risks to the forecast became great enough," minutes from the April 24-25 meeting said.

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Another bad hair day for Aubrey McClendon as Chesapeake shares fall precipitously after yesterday's bounce. Chesapeake Energy Corp shares fall as much as 6.5 percent this morning. The latest dump was inspired by a credit rating downgrade and news that will its borrowings will rise to $4 billion from the planned $3 billion as it confronts a liquidity crunch.

* Company takes $4 bln bridge loan instead of $3 bln
* S&P cuts rating to BB-
* Shares slump as much as 6.5 pct

Thumbs Up?

Reuters reports that the company, facing a funding shortfall of $9 billion to $10 billion this year, said o n F riday that Goldman Sachs and Jefferies Group would provide it with $3 billion. Chesapeake's cash flows have shrunk as natural gas prices slumped to their lowest levels in a decade, putting pressure on the second-largest U.S. producer of the fuel to raise money to fund drilling operations.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's said it had cut Chesapeake's credit rating to "BB-" from "BB," one notch lower into non investment, or "junk," status. S&P cited shortcomings in the company's corporate governance practices, concerns about loan covenants and the likelihood of a wider gap between operating cash flow and capital expenditures.

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A sober thought for new French President Hollande as he promised a social welfare spree to help get himself elected. An exit of Greece from the euro zone could cost the French taxpayer up to 66.4 billion euros and saddle the country's banking system with 20 billion euros in lost loans, according to a study published on Tuesday.

Reuters reports that Eric Dor, head of research at the IESEG School of Management in Lille, said in the report that the departure of the debt-striken Mediterranean state would result in at least partial losses on its liabilities to the other member states of the 17-nation bloc.

These include bilateral loans, lending from the euro zone's EFSF bailout fund, Greek debt held by the European Central Bank, and liabilities under the Target2 system used to settle cross-border payments in the euro system, the study said.

France's share, equivalent to just over one-fifth of the overall sum, would total around 66.4 billion euros, Dor said.

"A default rarely results in total losses for creditors. The losses could be a fraction of this upper limit, but they would likely be several tens of billions of euros in any case," Dor wrote.

He also estimated that French banks, some of which have subsidiaries in Greece, had loan book exposure and holdings of Greek debt totalling 39.7 billion euros.

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FOMC MEETING DATES:

2012

Tuesday-Wednesday, April 24-25 (second day: statement released 1230 EDT/1630 GMT; forecasts released 1400 EDT/1800 GMT; news conference 1415 EDT/1815 GMT)
Tuesday-Wednesday, June 19-20 (second day: statement released 1230 EDT/1630 GMT; forecasts released 1400 EDT/1800 GMT; news conference 1415 EDT/1815 GMT)
Tuesday, July 31 (statement released 1415 EDT/1815 GMT)
Wednesday, September 12 (statement released 1415 EDT/1815 GMT)
Tuesday-Wednesday, October 23-24 (second day: statement released 1230 EDT/1630 GMT; forecasts released 1400 EDT/1800 GMT; news conference 1415 EDT/1815 GMT)
Tuesday, December 11 (statement released 1415 EST/1915 GMT)

2013

Tuesday-Wednesday, January 29-30 (second day: statement released 1230 EST/1730 GMT; forecasts released 1400 EST/1900 GMT; news conference 1415 EST/1915 GMT)
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FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN BEN BERNANKE Schedule


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