January NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract Closed at $5.326 on Tuesday, December 20th

Tuesday, December 20th saw the January NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $5.416, nearly forty-four cents below Monday’s closing price of $5.851. Losing ground overnight as traders focused on the post-Christmas thaw, the contract posted a relatively quiet day. Trading within a tight band near $5.375 through 11:30AM, marking the intraday high of $5.437, prices then trended lower to mark the intraday low of $5.256 at 12:25PM. Trading sideways into the afternoon, January closed lower on Tuesday at $5.326.

The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report is due out on Thursday at 10:30AM. The report is expected to show a 94 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended December 16. This compares to a 55 BCF withdrawal at this time last year and a five-year average withdrawal amount of 124 BCF.

As of 6:25AM EST this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $1.07; Natural Gas was up 21 cents; Heating Oil was up five cents; and Gasoline was up two cents.
                                                                                                     
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