Wednesday, December 7th saw the January NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $5.643, seventeen cents above Tuesday’s closing price of $5.469. Trending higher overnight upon renewed forecasts for cold weather coming in the back half of the month, prices traded lower throughout the morning until finding an intraday low of $5.402 at 11:45AM. Soaring higher as the midday forecast supported the overnight call for an increase in expected heating demand, the contract reached an intraday high of $5.785 ahead of closing. January finished higher on Wednesday at $5.723.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report is due out on Thursday at 10:30AM. The report is expected to show a 20 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended December 2. This compares to a 59 BCF withdrawal at this time last year and a five-year average withdrawal amount of 49 BCF.
As of 6:25AM EST this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up 49 cents; Natural Gas was up nine cents; Heating Oil was up one cent; and Gasoline was up one cent.
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.