Wednesday, February 22nd saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $2.074, nearly even to Tuesday’s closing price of $2.073. Tallying the intraday low of $2.070 soon after the opening bell, prices climbed steadily higher through the morning hours despite strong bearish fundamentals. Peaking at the intraday high of $2.302 near 12:45PM, the rally could be attributed to oversold conditions or the long-awaited approval for the Freeport LNG terminal to resume full operations. Pulling back in the afternoon hours, March closed higher on Wednesday at $2.174.
Set to assume the front-month in the coming days, the April contract closed twelve cents higher at $2.298.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report is due out on Thursday at 10:30AM. The report is expected to show a 68 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended February 17. This compares to a 129 BCF withdrawal at this time last year and a five-year average withdrawal amount of 177 BCF.
As of 8:10AM EST this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up 71 cents; Natural Gas was down seven cents; Heating Oil was up one cent; and Gasoline was up slightly.
For access to Sprague’s full Natural Gas Market Watch Report including commentary not posted here, please send your request to natgas@spragueenergy.com or call 1-855-466-2842.
