“Bids were made through a variety of channels, including postings on New York Nuclear’s Uranium On-Line,” reported Nuclear Market Review (NMR) editor Treva Klingbiel in Friday’s issue. “Sellers were unresponsive and buyers were unable to conclude purchases by week’s end.” As a result the weekly spot uranium price indicator was increased to US$120/pound.

As we have advised the growing number of media contacting StockInterview.com, the market is in a ‘wait and see’ phase ahead of NYMEX futures trading. Sellers are not eager to quickly sell out, and continue to stretch their speculation to the limit. The gulf between the weekly spot price and the long-term uranium price now stands at $35/pound. This was the long-term uranium price in November 2005; now the dollar amount is the spread between spot and long-term.

Since January 2001, spot uranium has skyrocketed by 1775 percent. Over the past twelve months, U3O8 is 179 percent higher. The astounding price rise has fueled unusual price predictions across the Internet by less well-informed commentators. Discussions we had with Sprott Asset Management’s Kevin Bambrough, exactly 16 months ago, regarding his notion of a purely hypothetical uranium price of US$500/pound, are presently being forecast by the more enthusiastic price promoters. One of the more naïve has announced it could happen ‘in the blink of an eye.’

A strong reason deterring potential sellers from quickly parting with their precious U3O8 is the potential auction at the end of May by Texas-based Mestena Uranium LLC. Recent significant spikes in the spot uranium price followed the opening of sealed bids for modest quantities of the company’s yellowcake production.

According to NMR, both the conversion and enrichment markets remained quiet ahead of the NYMEX uranium futures trading soon commencing. “Market participants are awaiting with great curiosity the debut of NYMEX uranium futures trading,” Klingbiel wrote. Sellers are wary of committing to sales based on market-related pricing without a ‘clear understanding of whether the financially settled futures contract would reflect in the physical market,’ according to NMR.

Utility representatives attended this past week’s NYMEX seminars in New York and Atlanta to better understand how futures trading would impact their ability to purchase uranium. Exelon Corp’s (EXC) Jim Malone reportedly commented he would study futures trading as a possible risk management vehicle for the largest utility in the U.S.