Natural Gas Prices and Market Trends Explained

Wednesday, May 20th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas contract open at $3.058, $0.056 below Tuesday’s closing price of $3.114. As summer-like temperatures prepared to subside for key demand areas of the country, prices tallied an intraday high of $3.087 at 10:00AM only to withdraw soon thereafter. Monitoring expectations for today’s inventory update and fluctuating geopolitical tensions, the contract fell to $3.027 at midday and an intraday low of $2.985 at 2:05PM. June closed lower on Monday at $3.004.

The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report is due out Thursday at 10:30AM. The report is expected to show a 99 BCF injection to storage for the week ended May 15. This compares to a 120 BCF injection this time last year and a five-year average injection amount of 92 BCF.

As of 7:30AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $2.180; Natural Gas was up $0.015; Heating Oil was down $0.121; and Gasoline was up $0.018.

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