Friday, May 23rd saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas contract open at $3.238, $0.015 below Thursday’s closing price of $3.253. Recording the intraday low of $3.229 within minutes of the opening bell, prices then rose to tally an intraday high of $3.347 at 10:45AM. Maintaining this momentum, traders weighed the impact of the long holiday weekend, next week’s contract settlement, and impending summer heat. Trading along $3.310 into the afternoon, June closed higher on Friday at $3.334.
Markets were closed yesterday (5/27) in honor of Memorial Day.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published last Thursday posted a 120 BCF injection to storage for the week ended May 16 – in line with the market estimate of a 118 BCF injection. Total working gas in storage was reported as 2,375 BCF; 12.3% below this time last year and 3.9% above the five-year average.
As of 6:35AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $0.150; Natural Gas was down $0.085; Heating Oil was up $0.006; and Gasoline was up $0.012.
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