Wednesday, January 4th saw the February NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $4.042, five cents above Tuesday’s closing price of $3.988. Tallying the intraday low of $4.000 by 10:00AM, prices then rose to trade along the $4.15 level ahead of midday. Despite overnight forecasts leaning even more bearish than in days prior, the contract traded sideways into the afternoon. Marking the intraday high of $4.219 at 12:30PM, February closed higher on Wednesday at $4.172.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report is due out on Thursday at 10:30AM. The report is expected to show a 245 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended December 30. This compares to a 31 BCF withdrawal at this time last year and a five-year average withdrawal amount of 98 BCF.
As of 6:40AM EST this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $1.71; Natural Gas was down nine cents; Heating Oil was up nine cents; and Gasoline was up four cents.
For access to Sprague’s full Natural Gas Market Watch Report including commentary not posted here, please send your request to natgas@spragueenergy.com or call 1-855-466-2842.