Daily Market Update January 19, 2018

Early Morning Update

The Feb18 natural gas contract is trading down $0.01 at $3.17.  The Feb18 crude contract is down $0.91 at $63.04.

Summary

Yesterday the EIA reported a slightly lower than expected draw from storage of 183 Bcf.  The prompt NG contract took that opportunity to sell off a few cents and ultimately finished lower by $.043.  The main story now continues to be weather with forecasts showing a possible end to the very cold temperatures that have been blanketing the east coast.  Warmer than average temperatures are now forecast for the east coast for the balance of January and into early February.  Index pricing has relaxed a bit as the cold moves through and the potential exists for ‘normal’ prices for the rest of the month.  The cold snap that had affected ERCOT also seems to be moving out.  Cold temperatures had cause extremely high demand and prices this week in Texas.  With parts of ERCOT actually being winter peaking (surprising, I know), very cold temperatures only exacerbated the high demand.

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