Monday, December 18th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $2.570, eight cents above Friday’s closing price of $2.491. Continuing Friday’s rally, as additional heating demand was added to the forecast for the end of the month, some analysts also attributed this recovery to short covering. Marking the intraday low of $2.542 ahead of 11:00AM, prices then rose to tally the intraday high of $2.597 at 12:25PM. Drifting lower into the afternoon, January higher on Monday at $2.503.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published last Thursday showed a 55 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended December 8 – within range of the market estimate 60 BCF. Total working gas in storage was reported as 3,664 BCF; 7.2% above this time last year and 7.6% above the five-year average.
As of 6:20AM EST this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up six cents; Natural Gas was down seven cents; Heating Oil was down one cent; and Gasoline was down slightly.
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