Daily Market Update April 18, 2017
Early Morning Update
The May17 natural gas contract is trading down $0.04 at $3.12. The May17 crude contract is down $0.35 at $52.30.
Summary
The natural gas prompt month continued its rocky journey yesterday, as it lost 2% and settled down 6.4 cents at $3.164/MMBtu. Weather reports point to average to slightly above-average temperatures throughout the heating centers of the country over the next two weeks, erasing much of the lingering heating demand left over from winter. Production is still lagging nearly 2.0 Bcf/d in comparison to last year’s numbers, despite having increased to an average of 70.8 Bcf/d in April. An injection of 47 is expected this week, which is higher than historical builds. Investors are currently holding their largest bullish position in 10 years, fueling confidence in a rising market and beliefs that storage levels may prove to be tight this summer.