Daily Market Update August 24, 2017

Early Morning Update

The Sep17 natural gas contract is trading up $0.02 at $2.95.  Oct17 crude is down $0.11 at $48.30.

Summary

The Sep17 natural gas contract finished trading on Wednesday down $0.011 at $2.928.  The winter strip (Nov-Mar) finished near $3.19, which is right in the middle of the recent trading range of $3.07 to $3.33 dating back to early June.  Weather forecasts show very warm temperatures continuing to linger over the West Coast and the Pacific Northwest, while the rest of the country is expected to come in well below normal all the way through the 14-day forecast period.  Tropical Storm Harvey continues to strengthen as it makes its way towards the Gulf coast of Texas, and is expected to reach near hurricane strength before making landfall Friday afternoon.  Depending on the path of the storm, forecasts shows it may produce as much as 1-3 feet of rainfall along the coast.  As the storm weakens, it is expected to continue to dampen demand as it moves inland and curves towards the Northeast.  The market is anticipating a 45 Bcf injection when the U.S. Energy Information Administration releases their weekly storage report later this morning, which is below the 53 Bcf 5-year average, but well above last year’s build of 12 Bcf for the same week.

Market Update 082417