From the Wall Street Journal (Dec. 31, 2013):
Natural gas slumped Tuesday as traders cashed in profits from the best-performing commodity of the year ahead of a midweek holiday.Natural gas for February delivery tumbled 19.7 cents to $4.23 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The 4.5% drop was the biggest one-day decline since May.Still, natural-gas futures rose 26% this year, their biggest one-year rise since 2005 and the largest percentage gain for any commodity in 2013. After a relatively mild winter last year reduced demand for gas-powered heating in homes and offices, this winter started off unusually cold and wintry weather has persisted."Everyone anticipated prices to recover some from last year, so it's not a surprise," said Kent Bayazitoglu, an analyst for energy consulting firm Gelber & Associates in Houston.Compared with past years, "gas remains extremely cheap," he added.Natural-gas prices typically rise in the summers and winters as very hot or very cold temperatures prompt people to blast air conditioning or indoor heating.About half of all U.S. households use natural gas as their primary heating fuel, with natural-gas prices having climbed from less than $3.50/mmBtu in early November due to robust heating demand.Unusually large amounts of natural gas have been withdrawn from storage in recent weeks, a sign of strong demand. Inventories as of Dec. 20 stood at 3.071 trillion cubic feet, 16% below the exceptionally high year-ago level and 9.2% below the five-year average for the week.The Energy Information Administration is set to release its report for the week ended Dec. 27 on Friday at 10:30 a.m. EST....MORE
