Natural gas prices fall as milder summer temperatures move over U.S.

Investing.com - Natural gas prices moved lower on Tuesday after milder temperatures appeared set to settle in over parts of the heavily populated eastern U.S. and cut into the demand for the fuel at the nation's thermal electricity plants to power air conditioning in the country's households and businesses.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in September traded at USD3.443 per million British thermal units during U.S. morning trade, down 0.85%.

The September contract settled down 2.55%, at USD3.472 per million British thermal units on Monday.

Weather forecasting services have called for cooler-than-normal temperatures for much of central and eastern reaches of the country for several days now, which sent prices plummeting in recent session though prices began to stabilize on Tuesday.

Many investors began to price in below-normal temperatures through the first two weeks of August, which curbed losses.

Meanwhile, markets continued to digest Thursday's supply data.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural gas storage in the U.S. in the week ended July 19 rose by 41 billion cubic feet, below market expectations for an increase of 46 billion cubic feet.

Total stocks now stand at 2.786 trillion cubic feet, down 399 billion cubic feet from last year at this time and 46 billion cubic feet below the five-year average the report said.

The report showed that in the East Region, stocks were 120 billion cubic feet below the five-year average, following net injections of 25 billion cubic feet.

Stocks in the Producing Region were 45 billion cubic feet above the five-year average of 980 billion cubic feet after a net injection of 12 billion cubic feet.

Elsewhere on the NYMEX, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery in September were down 1.51% and trading at USD103.08 a barrel, while heating oil futures for September delivery were down 0.31% at USD3.0095 per gallon.