Daily Market Update April 18, 2018
Early Morning Update
The May18 natural gas contract is trading up $0.01 at $2.75. The May18 crude contract is up $1.18 at $67.70.
Summary
The natural gas market softened slightly on Tuesday, reflecting dwindling demand and a varied weather forecast for the medium term. The May prompt month lost just over a cent to $2.738/MMBtu, the 12-month strip lost one cent to $2.873, and 2019 & 2020 both lost a penny to $2.796 and $2.765, respectively. A significant drop in gas demand is underway, as Tuesday came in around 5% below the April month-to-date average. The next week should bring a 10% drop from the current April average demand, and the following week is estimated to average 17% below the monthly mean. Much of this stems from weather forecasts that fluctuate across the country. Through this weekend, much of the Midwest and Northeast remain significantly below normal, but moderate, through the end of the month. The West Coast and Texas remain above average for most of the next three weeks, but, as we are in the shoulder season, those regions do not provide much of a counterpoint for some of the lessening eastern demand.
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