Thursday, January 27th – settlement day for the February contract – saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $4.308, three cents above Wednesday’s closing price of $4.277. Climbing throughout the day, prices skyrocketed ahead of settlement, which analysts are attributing to a short squeeze. Setting a fifteen-year intraday high of $7.436 at 2:15PM, February settled higher on Thursday at $6.265.
Ready to assume the prompt-month, the March contract opened at $4.063, three cents above Wednesday’s closing price. Experiencing similar volatility throughout the day, the contract closed higher at $4.283.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday showed a 219 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended January 21st – above the market estimate of 195 BCF. Total working gas in storage was reported as 2,591 BCF; 10.6% below this time last year and 1.0% below the five-year average.
As of 6:20AM EST this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up 46 cents; Natural Gas was up 14 cents; Heating Oil was up two cents; and Gasoline was up two cents.
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