Natural Gas Futures Tread Lightly Ahead of EIA Storage Print
With mixed weather patterns and a government inventory update only hours away, natural gas futures traded lower early Thursday.
With mixed weather patterns and a government inventory update only hours away, natural gas futures traded lower early Thursday.
Natural gas futures seesawed in a narrow range of gains and losses for a second straight session on Wednesday. The prompt month hovered in the red by early afternoon trading as market participants weighed expectations for strong late-August cooling needs and bullish supply trends against expectations for retreating demand in the fall.
Natural gas futures traded in a narrow band early Wednesday as traders contemplated favorable late-summer fundamentals alongside the specter of fall weather and the inevitable swoon in cooling demand that it delivers.
September Nymex natural gas futures’ early attempt to extend a rally into Tuesday’s session failed amid expectations for demand weakness as weather outlooks pointed to increasingly mild conditions across major natural gas-consuming regions.
Coming off an 11.2-cent rally the previous session, natural gas futures probed a few cents higher early Tuesday on lower production estimates. But the prompt month failed to sustain momentum as traders focused on weaker near-term demand and took profits. Cash prices also trended lower at midday.
Technical indicators appear to support a positive outlook for natural gas prices at least in the short term, but cautious traders could decide to enter the market only when the price moves above key resistance levels, according to technical analysts.
Natural gas futures traded up a few cents early Tuesday as market participants digested an uneven weather demand forecast, a dip in production and ongoing progress toward addressing a supply overhang.
Weekly natural gas spot prices crept higher in the week as regional hub values varied amid changes in weather forecasts that pulled back the number of cooling-degree days expected as the calendar drifts from summer closer to fall.
Natural gas forward prices maintained a bearish tenor in parts of Texas and the West, but an atypical summer storage withdrawal and increased focus on the approaching winter cast a bullish hue elsewhere to send prices broadly higher.
Natural gas futures rallied after a rare summer storage draw but then lost steam Thursday, possibly from profit taking as traders took a cue from cash markets still under the spell of oversupply.