Daily Market Update January 22, 2018

Early Morning Update

The Feb18 natural gas contract is trading up $0.01 at $3.19.  The Feb18 crude contract is up $0.08 at $63.45.

Summary

On Friday, after a volatile trading week, NYMEX natural gas futures price for February remained relatively flat, decreasing only 0.4 cent to settle at $3.185/MMBtu. After the second wave of cold spread across most of the nation this month, the 1-5 and 6-10 day forecasts have moderated, with warmer-than-normal temperatures blanketing the majority of the eastern half of the country. The warmer weather has helped put a cap on NYMEX prices for the remainder of the calendar year. Total U.S. demand for natural gas has tumbled over 40 Bcf/d over the last six days, with res-comm and industrial demand lower by 4% and 1%, respectively. Recently, production has been on the upswing, pushing closer to the record level set at the end of December and averaging over 77 Bcf/d. Expectations for the end of the titular withdrawal season have fallen even further, after the second wave of cold last week, to 1.24 Tcf.

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