Wednesday, January 8th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $3.568, up $0.119 compared to Tuesday’s closing price of $3.449. Ticking higher overnight as forecasts remain supportive, prices rose to $3.660 ahead of 11:00AM though pulled back to $3.620 ahead of the weekly storage publication. Moved up a day early in observance of the National Day of Mourning for former President Jimmy Carter, the bearish midday storage report pointed prices to the intraday low of $3.548. Quick to rebound as traders refocused on current demand and next weeks expected above-average pull, the contract rallied to mark the intraday high of $3.683 at 1:20PM. February closed higher on Wednesday at $3.651.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on 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 7:15AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $0.180; Natural Gas was down $0.074; Heating Oil was up $0.010, and Gasoline was up $0.002.
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