Yahoo Finance Natural Gas Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – Expecting Tight Range Ahead of Thursday’s EIA Storage Report
Natural gas futures are inching higher on Wednesday in a mostly lackluster trade. The price action suggests the Tuesday’s expiration of the May futures contract may have been responsible for the heightened volatility the first two days of the week.
Natural Gas Intelligence described the price action this way, “Volatility has been at a fever pitch for weeks given the still unfolding coronavirus pandemic and oil market downturn, and Tuesday’s price action in the futures market offered more of the same.”
At 13:02 GMT, June natural gas futures are trading $1.957, up $0.009 or +0.46%.
Short-Term Weather Outlook
Bespoke Weather Services
The expiration of the May contract brought with it “a couple of wild sessions,” according to Bespoke Weather Services. Heading into Wednesday’s trading, there was “not much new” from forecasts.
The pattern “continues to exhibit a cool lean from the Midwest to East over the next couple of weeks, while the West stays warm, including some impressive early season heat in the Southwest,” the forecaster said. “National demand is projected to be a little above normal through the first half of May…but this is a low demand time of year,’ meaning degree day totals ‘are not significantly moving the needle yet.”
Maxar’s Weather Desk
Maxar’s Weather Desk similarly predicted below normal conditions for the eastern half of the Lower 48 and above normal temperatures in the West out in the May 9-13 time frame.
“The pattern becomes less amplified in time, and moderation is in the mid to late period as a result,” the forecaster said.
For next week, Maxar’s latest forecast underwent a warmer change for the Rockies, Midwest and South.
NatGasWeather
According to NatGasWeather for April 29 to May 5, “A weather system will sweep across the Great Lakes and East the next few days with showers and slightly cool highs of 50s to 70s. The South and Southeast well be near ideal with highs of 70s to mid-80s, while the Southwest into West Texas will be hot with 90s and 100s. The rest of the US will be comfortable with highs of 60s to 70s from Chicago to New York City for light demand, although remaining hot over the Southwest and Southern Plains. Cooler air will spread across much of the US next week.
US Energy Information Administration Weekly Storage Report
The EIA reported last Thursday that domestic supplies of natural gas rose by 43 Bcf for the week-ended April 17. That would compare with last year’s 92 Bcf injection and the five-year 49 Bcf build, according to the EIA.
Total stocks now stand at 2.140 trillion cubic feet (TCF), up 827 Bcf from a year ago, and 364 Bcf above the five-year average, the government report showed.
EBW Analytics Group analysts said, “The steep decline in weather-driven demand for gas expected over the next two weeks,” should result in the first reported triple-digit storage injection from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) this week.
This article was originally posted on FX Empire
