Thursday, December 20th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contracts open at $3.898, seventeen cents above Wednesday’s closing price of $3.726. A quick jump to the intraday high of $3.913 shortly after 9:00AM, gave way to selling as the overnight rally lacked fundamental support. Stepping down to $3.385 by 9:30AM and then to $3.790 thirty minutes later, the contract paused as the storage publication drew near. Trending lower as the storage withdrawal fell within the range of market expectations, prices fluctuated between $3.822 and $3.700 before ultimately descending shortly after midday. Finding momentary support near $3.670 through the afternoon, January marked an intraday low of $3.572 before closing lower on Thursday at $3.583.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday showed a 141 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended December 14th – below the market estimate of 147 BCF. Total working gas in storage was reported as 2,773 BCF; 20.1% below this time last year and 20.6% below the five-year average.
This morning in Globex, WTI Crude was down 45 cents; Natural Gas was up 12 cents; Heating Oil was down three cents; and Gasoline was down two cents.
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