BLBG: Natural Gas Rises First Day in Four in New York on Cooler November Weather
Natural gas futures rose for the first time in four days as forecasts showed cooler-than-normal weather in early November, boosting demand for the heating fuel.
Temperatures will be below normal in the U.S. Northeast next week and along the Atlantic Coast from Nov. 5 to Nov. 9, according to Commodity Weather Group LLC in Bethesda, Maryland. Gas has tumbled 39 percent this year as rising production increased an inventory surplus.
“Prices are down to a level where it’s pretty cheap to buy gas,” said Carl Neill, an energy consultant at Risk Management Inc. in Atlanta. “You are starting to get colder weather predictions and it’s going to firm the market.”
Natural gas for November delivery rose 8.1 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $3.398 per million British thermal units at 9:58 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Yesterday gas fell to the lowest price in more than 13 months.
The November contract expires tomorrow. The more active December futures gained 11.3 cents to $3.779 per million Btu.
“People are going to be looking for bottoms at these levels,” said Peter Beutel, president of trading advisory company Cameron Hanover Inc. in New Canaan, Connecticut. “We have some weather pronouncements that are a little bit more bullish.”
New York will have a low of 38 degrees Fahrenheit (3 Celsius) on Nov. 7, 6 degrees below average, according to AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania. Boston will have a high of 30 degrees.
About 52 percent of U.S. households use gas for heating, according to the Energy Department.
To contact the reporters on this story: Moming Zhou in New York at Mzhou29@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net