Thursday, October 24th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $2.432, up $0.090 compared to Wednesday’s closing price of $2.342. A supportive shift in overnight forecasts saw the contract trading along $2.440 leading up to the weekly storage publication. Withdrawing to an intraday low of $2.390 following the bearish injection, traders then left analysts somewhat puzzled as a late-day rally saw prices surpass the $2.500 level. With some attributing these gains to short covering as settlement draws near, November recorded an intraday high of $2.549 ahead of 2:30PM, ultimately closing higher on Thursday at $2.522.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday showed an 80 BCF injection to storage for the week ended October 18 – above the market estimate of a 64 BCF injection. Total working gas in storage was reported as 3,785 BCF; 2.9% above this time last year and 4.6% above the five-year average.
As of 6:10AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $0.280; Natural Gas was down $0.004; Heating Oil was up $0.006, and Gasoline was up $0.006.
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