BS: Natural Futures Gain on Outlook for Above-Average Stockpile Drop
Natural gas futures advanced in New York for the first time in four days before a government report that may show the biggest stockpile decline so far this winter.
Gas rose as much as 2 percent as the Energy Department may say in a report due at 10:30 a.m. that U.S. inventories fell 130 billion cubic feet last week, based on the median of 23 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The five-year average decline for the week is 111 billion. Supplies dropped 77 billion cubic feet a year earlier.
“Today the focus is on the storage report and if you compared to last year and the five-year average, the number should be larger,” said Tom Saal, senior vice president of energy trading at FCStone Latin America, LLC in Miami. “That’s why we are up.”
Natural gas for February delivery rose 5.1 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $3.249 per million British thermal units at 9:09 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gas yesterday fell to $3.198, the lowest settlement price since Sept. 26. The futures are up 4.9 percent from a year ago and down 6.3 percent this week. Trading volume was 30 percent below the 100-day average.
To contact the reporter on this story: Naureen S. Malik in New York at nmalik28@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net
