Thursday, December 13th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contracts open at $4.276, fourteen cents above Wednesday’s closing price of $4.136. Reaching the intraday high of $4.307 by 10:10AM, a storage withdrawal that fell on the low-end of withdrawal expectations then directed prices lower. Trading near $4.240 through 11:00AM, the contract then plummeted over the following thirty minutes to mark a two-week intraday low of $4.091. A failed recovery effort saw January climb to $4.233 shortly after midday, only to falter and close slightly lower on Thursday at $4.124.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday showed a 77 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended December 7th – below the market estimate of 85 BCF. Total working gas in storage was reported as 2,914 BCF; 19.9% below this time last year and 19.9% below the five-year average.
This morning in Globex, WTI Crude was down 12 cents; Natural Gas was down eighteen cents; Heating Oil was down slightly; and Gasoline was down one cent.
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