Thursday, February 20th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $4.128, down $0.152 compared to Wednesday’s closing price of $4.280. After hitting a two-year intraday high on Wednesday, the contract withdrew overnight as traders shifted their focus to impending mild March temperatures. Marking the intrada high of $4.180 within minutes of the opening bell, prices traded along the $4.145 level leading up to the weekly storage publication. Trending lower to record the intraday low of $4.036 at 11:45AM, March recovered into the afternoon to close lower on Thursday at $4.152.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday posted a 196 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended February 14 – in line with the market estimate of a 191 BCF withdrawal. Total working gas in storage was reported as 2,101 BCF; 15.5% below this time last year and 5.3% below the five-year average.
As of 7:40AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was down $0.570; Natural Gas was up $0.098; Heating Oil was down $0.033; and Gasoline was down $0.013.
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