Friday, January 4th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contracts open at $3.026, eight cents above Thursday’s closing price of $2.945. Prices sank lower as trading began, finding support near $2.980 through 10:20AM. Declining to the intraday low of $2.917 as the bearish storage report hit the wire, the contract then mounted a steady ascent to cross midday near $2.990. Defying above-average, short-term weather forecasts, momentum carried prices to the intraday high of $3.049 before closing higher on Friday at $3.044.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Friday showed a 20 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended December 28th – below the market estimate of 35 BCF. Total working gas in storage was reported as 2,705 BCF; 14.3% below this time last year and 17.2% below the five-year average.
This morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $1.08; Natural Gas was down nine cents; Heating Oil was up four cents; and Gasoline was up three cents.
New York and New England basis values were higher for all seasons. Additionally, cash prices were higher in New York and New England.
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