RTTN: U.S. GAS: Gas Futures Retreat Again Ahead of Storage News
By John M. Biers
NEW YORK--Natural gas futures were trending lower again Thursday as the market looked past a major storm in the Northeast and ahead to fresh gas inventory data.
Natural gas futures were trading at $3.537 a million British thermal units, down 4.1 cents, or 1.2%. Natural gas has declined during each of the last two trading sessions.
The decline of recent days has come despite a major storm in the Northeast that brought snow across much of the region. However, analysts said the cold weather had already been priced into the commodity.
Instead, the market is looking ahead to Thursday's natural gas inventory report, which comes as the quantity of gas in storage stands at record levels. The Energy Information Administration is expected to report that 27 billion cubic feet of gas were injected into storage during the week ended Nov. 2.
If the storage estimate is correct, inventories as of Nov. 2 will total a record 3.935 trillion cubic feet, about 7% above the five-year average and 3% above last year's level for the same week.
The new storage data also comes amid a fresh weather forecast Thursday that is "slightly warmer" for the coming period compared with the Wednesday forecast, said Phil Vida, a meteorologist at MDA Earthsat, a private forecaster.
Mr. Vida said there were pockets of cold weather expected next week, but that the 11-15 day forecast calls for generally warmer temperatures for much of the nation.
"There just seems to be a lack of enthusiasm to buy into this market, especially considering the weather outlook," said Matt Smith, an analyst at Summit Energy.
Natural gas for next-day delivery at the benchmark Henry Hub in Louisiana recently traded at $3.44/MMBtu, according to Intercontinental Exchange, compared with Wednesday's average of $3.4668/MMBtu. Natural gas for next-day delivery at Transcontinental Zone 6 in New York traded at $3.68/MMBtu, down from Wednesday's $4.0364/MMBtu.
Write to John Biers at john.biers@dowjones.com
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