Monday, June 18, 2012

Natural Gas Pops 5% on Weather Forecast

Well speak of the devil.*
The futures are up 4.62% at $2.581.
From Reuters:
US natgas futures up 5 pct on weather, storage

U.S. natural gas futures rallied sharply on Monday, driven by forecasts for hot 
weather in the Northeast and Midwest this week that should stir more
cooling demand and expectations for another supportive weekly inventory report.
 
Temperatures from New York to Chicago are expected to top 90
degrees Fahrenheit this week, a level that should force
homeowners and businesses to crank up air conditioners and limit
the amount of gas added to inventories, already at record highs
for this time...

...While the warm outlook for this week could support prices,
some traders remain skeptical of the upside with more seasonal
weather expected later this week and next week for the Northeast
and Midwest.
 
 "The intense heat from the earlier (1-5 day) period will
quickly fade over the Northeast as a cool trough settles back
into the region within this (six-10 day) time frame, private
forecaster MDA EarthSat said in its morning report. ...MORE  

The Wall Street Journal reports:

...The Midwest and Northeast are expected to see their first period of summer heat this week, according to MDA EarthSat. The forecaster expects temperatures could reach above 95 degrees in Boston Wednesday, though the heat "will quickly fade over the Northeast as a cool trough settles into the region" in the next week.

"We had a big move, so the market is really looking for confirmation that there is demand from the utilities," said Bob Yawger, an energy analyst at Mizuho....
*Earlier:
The Next Big Natural Gas Report is Not This Week's Storage Report