January NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract Closed at $6.600 on Friday, December 16th

Friday, December 16th saw the January NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $6.484, forty-nine cents below Thursday’s closing price of $6.970. Recording the intraday low of $6.410 by 9:15AM, overnight forecasts confirmed news of arctic conditions moving in next week, as well as a partial thawing to close out the month. Trending gradually higher throughout the day, prices crossed midday at $6.601 and peaked at an intraday high of $6.689 at 1:25PM. January closed lower on Friday at $6.600; up nearly 6% on the week.

The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published last Thursday showed a 50 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended December 9 – in line with the market estimate of 56 BCF. Total working gas in storage was reported as 3,412 BCF; 0.5% below this time last year and 0.4% below the five-year average.

As of 7:50AM EST this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up 38 cents; Natural Gas was down 36 cents; Heating Oil was up five cents; and Gasoline was up one cent.
                                                                                                       
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