Daily Market Update February 5, 2018
Early Morning Update
The Mar18 natural gas contract is trading down $0.05 at $2.79. The Mar18 crude contract is down $0.35 at $65.10.
Summary
After trading as high as $2.92 on Friday, the March natural gas futures contract settled back down to finish the week at $2.846, down a penny day-over-day. Colder-than-normal temperatures across the middle of the country for the next 6-10 days is offering price support, but the cold wave is expected to give way to warmer-than-average temperatures in the 8-14 day outlook. With the warm-up on the horizon, and the anticipated slowdown of storage withdrawals accompanying it, the upside for natural gas prices seems limited. The March contract has been on a continuous downslide since debuting as the prompt month last week, losing almost $0.35 so far. Total U.S. demand is projected to be at 107.5 Bcf/d today, up from 99.6 Bcf/d over the weekend due to the cold temps, and production has been stable at 78.0 Bcf/d. The eastern U.S. should see a boost in supply this week from three LNG carriers headed to Everett, Canaport, and Elba Island import terminals. However, this will be tempered by increased LNG exports at Cove Point.