Daily Market Update April 17, 2017

Early Morning Update

The May17 natural gas contract is trading down $0.05 at $3.18.  The May17 crude contract is down $0.18 at $53.00.

Summary

The May natural gas futures contract has been bumpy over the last few days, as weather-related demand, last week’s storage injection, and faltering production pulled market prices in two different directions.  The prompt month settled Thursday at $3.227/MMBtu, up four cents on the day.  Short term weather forecasts  are pointing to increased cooling demand for much of the U.S. this week.  Gas calendar strips for 2018–2020 are up two cents day-over-day, with 2018 having the biggest increase of 7 cents since April 1st.  This increase is mostly being driven by lagging production, which lost 0.2 Bcf/d over the weekend, and the ’17-’18 winter strip, which is up 11 cents since the beginning of the month.  Power calendar forwards nationwide are gaining strength - PJM and the western markets have deviated slightly from their all-time lows.

Market Update 041717

Market Settles 041317