Thursday, April 20th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $2.244, two cents above Wednesday’s closing price of $2.222. Extending to the intraday high of $2.271 within minutes of the open, prices then stepped down to the $2.210 level as the weekly storage report drew near. Trending lower following the release of the bearish report, the contract marked an intraday low of $2.140 at 11:15AM. Reclaiming lost ground as confidence grew regarding the forecast for below average temperatures that are expected to close out the month, prices rose to the $2.250 level near 1:30PM. May closed higher on Thursday at $2.249.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday showed a 75 BCF injection to storage for the week ended April 14 – above with the market estimate of 65 BCF. Total working gas in storage was reported as 1,930 BCF; 33.8% above this time last year and 20.5% above the five-year average.
As of 7:15AM EST this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up seven cents; Natural Gas was down four cents; Heating Oil was flat; and Gasoline was up two cents.
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