Natural gas futures kicked off the trading week where the market finished the last – pushing upward on the heels of favorable weather forecasts, lighter supply readings and bullish bets by fund managers.
Coming off four consecutive gains last week, the September Nymex gas futures contract was up 9.4 cents to $2.237/MMBtu as of 8:40 a.m. ET on Monday.
Money managers boosted net long positions to a six-week high during the first full week of August, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Bloomberg data. The unraveling of short positions brought new buyers into the natural gas market as cooling demand was poised to mount across the Lower 48.
