Daily Market Update August 3, 2018

Early Morning Update

The Sep18 natural gas contract is trading up $0.02 at $2.83. The Sep18 crude contract is down $0.14 at $68.83.

Summary

The NYMEX saw a decent rally at the front of the curve as the prompt month finished up $.058 to close at $2.816.  The rally was on the back of yet another disappointing storage report, this was coming in as a build of 35 Bcf.  This is the third below-expectations report in a row and concerns are slowly growing about the storage levels.  Forecasts call for the next three builds to be +47, +42 and +51 and the latest end/summer estimate is 3.43.  Above-average temperatures for the next several weeks should keep power burn levels relatively high and injections somewhat low.  On the power side, prices for NEPOOL continue to creep higher and the California market is still struggling with a heat wave which is pushing prices up there as well.  Short-term prices in CA have been very volatile as extreme temperatures strain the grid

Market Update 080318