Daily Market Update October 15, 2018
Early Morning Update
The Nov18 natural gas contract is trading up $0.08 at $3.24. The Nov18 crude contract is up $0.46 at $71.80.
Summary
On Friday, the November 2018 NYMEX natural gas futures price dipped lower by 6.1 cents on the day to settle at $3.161/MMBtu, after trading as high as $3.270/MMBtu. As cooler-than-normal temperatures blanket the majority of the country over the next couple weeks, we are not seeing a weakening in total U.S. demand for natural gas as cooling demand switches to heating demand. Residential commercial demand continues its bullish ascent and is estimated to be around 17 Bcf/d higher than this time last year. Following the previous week, once again, the EIA reported another bearish larger than expected storage injection last week of 90 Bcf, in line with expectations. With only about three injection reports left this season, expectations for the end-of-season inventory levels are still at a thirteen year low. This week, Direct Energy will release the preliminary winter outlook, which will be a first look at what we might expect this winter. U.S. dry productions remains slightly lower, compared to the record set late September, hovering around 83.4 Bcf/d so far this month.