"The futures appear to be bottoming (for now). Here's the 5-minute chart from FinViz...Front futures $3.5400, last."Prices did indeed stop going down on July 1 and although they have faked undercutting the $3.54 (from the the time of posting) there is a slight but important series of higher lows to make one think there is some sort of support there. Here's the hourly chart from FinViz:
This tilted the odds in favor of the bulls so that even with the disappointing (for the bulls) storage numbers yesterday the futures did not go below $3.57 and made "Ahead of Today's EIA Natural Gas Storage Report the Question Is..."
... Will next week's warm up be tradable?
look braver than it actually was.
Heat wave next week, front futures $3.648.
From the EIA:
...Increased consumption of natural gas for electric generation in the northeastern and southeastern United States drove national growth through the second quarter (April-June) of 2013, a trend that continues into July. During the second quarter, power plant gas consumption in the Lower 48 states averaged 21.4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), a 1.1 Bcf/d increase over the average for this period from 2008 to 2012, according to data from Bentek Energy Services. States in the Northeast and Southeast accounted for almost 98% of this increase, with the average second quarter levels in both of these regions rising by 0.5 Bcf/d over their respective 2008-12 averages.
These increases occurred despite slightly cooler temperatures in these two regions. While temperatures in the Northeast averaged 62.7 degrees Fahrenheit, 1.4% below the 2008-12 average, natural gas consumption for power generation averaged 4.6 Bcf/d, 12.9%, above the 2008-12 average. Similarly, in the Southeast, average April-June temperatures this year averaged 71.8 degrees, 3.0% below the 2008-12 average, while power generation averaged 6.9 Bcf/d, 8.3% above the 2008-12 average. Overall, the Henry Hub spot price has decreased significantly since 2008, contributing to an increase in the gas-fired share of total power generation
Although electric generator natural gas consumption in the second quarter was above the average 2008-12 level, it was 18.5% lower than 2012's record natural gas power burn, which was high because of a particularly hot summer and low gas prices. Since 2012, coal has reclaimed some of its share of the electricity market as gas prices rose from last year's lows. This second-quarter trend has continued into July, with natural gas consumed for power generation averaging 27.6 Bcf/d since July 1, 4.3% higher than the 2008-12 average, but 21.7% lower than the same period last year...MUCH MORE
