Monday, January 13th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $4.022, up $0.033 compared to Friday’s closing price of $3.989. Entering the session on a pullback from the $4.185 region prior to the open, the contract fluctuated near the $3.98 level through midday as the weekend rally was over-bought. Marking the intraday high of $4.039 at 10:15AM, prices pulled back to an intraday low of $3.845 at 1:15PM. With freeze-offs diminishing and current forecasts priced into the market, February traded sideways into closing to finish at $3.934 on Monday
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published last Wednesday showed a 40 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended January 3 – below the market estimate of a 48 BCF withdrawal. Total working gas in storage was reported as 3,373 BCF; 0.1% below this time last year and 6.4% above the five-year average.
As of 7:20AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was down $0.340; Natural Gas was down $0.132; Heating Oil was down $0.021, and Gasoline was up $0.001.
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