Daily Market Update July 12, 2019

Early Morning Update

The Aug19 natural gas contract is trading up $0.03 at $2.44.  The Aug19 crude oil contract is up $0.11 at $60.31.

Summary

Yesterday, the NYMEX fell $.028 to close the day at $2.416.  The prompt month contract has been hovering near $2.40 all week as the heat and humidity appear to have been baked into the market now.  So while the gas market seems to have a (temporary?) home, power prices are waking up an becoming more volatile.  As you can see from the graphs below, we’ve seen a sharp rally in prices in nearly all markets this week due to increasing temperatures and a greater likelihood of higher index prices.  After a mild late May and June, it appears as though summer is finally here, and if we look ahead to the weather forecasts, it appears as though it’ll stick around through at least the end of the month.  These higher temps are having an effect on NG demand as we’re setting records to power burns now, and with the potential for more heat, additional records are likely to be set before the summer is over.

Market Update071219