Thursday, January 13th – saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $4.593, twenty-six cents below Wednesday’s closing price of $4.857. Reaching an intraday high of $4.601 within minutes of the opening bell, the contract posted a staggered descent to trade near $4.460 ahead of the weekly storage report. Losing ground following the bullish storage withdrawal, which had a wide range of expectations, volatility ensued as the contract traded within a ten-cent range of $4.360 over the balance of the day. February closed lower on Thursday at $4.270; down 12% on the day and up 0.5% since Tuesday.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday showed a 179 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended January 7th – below the market estimate of 120 BCF. Total working gas in storage was reported as 3,016 BCF; 6.2% below this time last year and 2.4% above the five-year average.
As of 6:10AM EST this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $1.05; Natural Gas was down eight cents; Heating Oil was up three cents; and Gasoline was up three cents.
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