Thursday, January 18th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contracts open at $3.176, five cents below Wednesday’s closing price of $3.232. Fluctuating within a three-cent range before stabilizing near $3.195 ahead of 10:30AM, prices then plummeted as the bearish storage report was released. Falling to the intraday low of $3.070 forty minutes later as the withdrawal paled in comparison to market expectations and last week’s record setting figure, bulls quickly reentered the market to mount a recovery effort. Surpassing $3.110 by 1:00PM and $3.170 an hour later, February rose to the intraday high of $3.205 before closing ultimately lower on Thursday at $3.189.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday showed a 183 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended January 12th – below the market estimate of 196 BCF. Total working gas in storage was reported as 2,584 BCF; 12.5% below this time last year and 12.3% below the five-year average.
This morning in Globex, WTI Crude was down 87 cents; Natural Gas was down two cents; Heating Oil was down two cents; and, Gasoline was down three cents.
Natural Gas Glossary
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