U.S. natural gas rises to 1-week high on bets for bullish storage data
Investing.com
Published Mar 01, 2017 09:39AM ET
U.S. natural gas rises on bets for bullish storage data
Investing.com - U.S. natural gas futures rose to a one-week high on Wednesday, as traders looked ahead to weekly storage data to gauge supply and demand levels.
U.S. natural gas for April delivery reached a session high of $2.824 per million British thermal units earlier, a level not seen since February 21.
It was last at $2.779 by 9:40AM ET (14:40GMT), up 0.5 cents, or around 0.3%, after jumping 3% in the prior session.
Market participants looked ahead to weekly storage data due on Thursday, which is expected to show a draw in a range of 5 billion cubic feet in the week ended February 24.
That compares with a withdrawal of 89 billion cubic feet in the preceding week, 48 billion a year earlier and a five-year average drop of 132 billion cubic feet.
Total natural gas in storage currently stands at 2.356 trillion cubic feet, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2.5% lower than levels at this time a year ago and 6.6% above the five-year average for this time of year.
Prices of the heating fuel are down a whopping 27% so far this year as forecasts called for mostly warmer-than-normal winter weather in key regions across the U.S.
Based on data from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, this year’s extremely warm winter has pushed heating demand for natural gas to nearly 20% below average.
About half of U.S. homes use natural gas for heating.
Without significant demand for natural gas, inventories could stay near record levels and may even continue to pull prices even lower.
Get The News You Want
Written By: Investing.com
Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.