Wednesday, February 18th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas contract open at $3.003, $0.028 below Tuesday’s closing price $3.031. Battling bearish forecasts, prices trended lower ahead of midday to cross the $3.00 level for the first time since mid-October. Marking the four-month intraday low of $2.922 at 12:45PM, bargain buying then took control as the contract recovered to tag the intraday high of $3.034 an hour later. March closed lower on Wednesday at $3.011.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report is due out Thursday at 10:30AM. The report is expected to show a 150 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended February 13. This compares to a 196 BCF withdrawal this time last year and a five-year average withdrawal amount of 151 BCF.
As of 8:25AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $1.210; Natural Gas was up $0.051 Heating Oil was up $0.044; and Gasoline was up $0.023.
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