Thursday, January 25th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contracts open at $3.547, four cents above Wednesday’s closing price of $3.509. Tallying the intraday high of $3.552 as markets opened, the contract shed overnight gains despite expectations for an above average storage withdrawal. Trading near $3.465 by 10:00AM and persisting through the subsequent thirty minutes, the bullish storage report briefly directed prices above $3.510 before sinking to the intraday low of $3.398 minutes later. Mounting a recovery effort to reach $3.530 by midday, profit taking set in to finish the day, as Monday’s settlement looms closer. February closed lower on Thursday at $3.447.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday showed a 288 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended January 19th – larger than the market estimate of 275 BCF. Total working gas in storage was reported as 2,296 BCF; 18.4% below this time last year and 17.5% below the five-year average.
This morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up 20 cents; Natural Gas was up three cents; Heating Oil was up one cent; and, Gasoline was down slightly.
Natural Gas Glossary
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