Daily Market Update April 20, 2018

Early Morning Update

The May18 natural gas contract is trading up $0.02 at $2.68. The May18 crude contract is down $0.44 at $67.85.

Summary

The NYMEX NG market saw it’s biggest one day drop in weeks as the prompt month contract shrugged off a bullish storage report to finish the day down $.079 at $2.66.  The EIA did report a larger-than-expected draw from storage of 36 bcf.  More typical of this time of year is to see injections into storage so it’s a testament to the persistent cold weather that we are seeing significant withdrawals from storage, especially considering how strong NG production is.  But weather forecasts are showing a moderation in temperatures along the east coast and we may actually start to see ‘normal’ temperatures starting in the next few days.  I won’t complain.  
Power prices in the eastern markets took a bit of a breather yesterday after marching steadily higher over the past 2 weeks.  Cold temperatures and relatively high index pricing have pushed up pricing for subsequent winters.

Market Update 042018