Friday, January 2nd saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas contract open at $3.634, $0.052 below Wednesday’s closing price of $3.686. Following a material pullback during Wednesday’s session, prices fell to an intraday low of $3.566 at 9:55AM. Posting a steady recovery into midday, the contract ascended to the intraday high of $3.703 at 12:05PM. Pulling back near 1:30PM to trade along $3.625 February closed lower on Friday at $3.618.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published last Wednesday posted a 38 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended December 26 – in line with the market estimate of a 40 BCF withdrawal. Total working gas in storage was reported as 3,375 BCF; 1.6% below this time last year and 1.7% above the five-year average.
As of 7:30AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $0.310; Natural Gas was down $0.156; Heating Oil was up $0.020; and Gasoline was up $0.004.
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