NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Natural gas futures edged higher Wednesday as hot weather and a glut of supply kept prices trapped within a narrow trading range. Natural gas for July delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange was trading 4.4 cents higher, or 1.04%, at $4.292 a million British thermal units after opening 2.6 cents higher at $4.274/MMBtu. Gas futures fluctuated Wednesday as traders weighed unusually warm weather in the major gas-consuming regions against a flood of supply from onshore rock formations called shales. Prices have remained in a 70-cent price range since mid-March. "There is absolutely nothing to push or pull this market in any direction," said Ed Kennedy, a broker with Hencorp Becstone Futures in Miami. Above-normal temperatures in the eastern and central U.S. over the next few weeks were expected to bolster the demand for natural gas to generate electricity cooling. MDA EarthSat, a Rockville, Md. private forecaster, was expecting above-normal temperatures in the Southeast, South Central region and parts of the West from June 7 to June 11. From June 12 to June 16, MDA was predicting warmer-than-normal temperatures across most of the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. But gas supplies remain onerous. Surging supplies and weak demand as the U.S. economy recovers have led to large injections of gas into underground storage each week. Total gas in U.S. storage as of May 21 was 2.269 trillion cubic feet, some 16% above the five-year average for the same week and 3.2% above last year's level for that week. "Natural gas, in particular, is weighing the balance of risks between an early arrival of hot weather and calls for an active hurricane season against a continued outlook for production growth," analysts with Barclays Capital in New York wrote in a note to clients Wednesday. -By Christine Buurma, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2143; christine.buurma@dowjones.com

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