The front (January) futures are down another 0.108 at 2.393:
Can you imagine an equivalent 3 - 4% drop in equities? The chyrons would be screaming "Dow down 1100, we're all going to die"
Programming note: the EIA will not be publishing the Natural Gas Weekly Update, they return to their regular schedule on December 5.
Here's some earlier commentary from FX Empire before today's action got into waterfall decline mode:
Natural Gas Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – Dramatic Sell-Off Resumes
Not only are the weather patterns changing, but the country is also split with winter storms on the western United States and milder temperatures elsewhere. Earlier in the week, weather models were supportive with rising expectations for a cold December. Then the models shifted to milder before trending warmer.....MORE
Natural gas futures are under pressure early Friday, continuing the sell-off that began on November 25 at $2.743. The early selling pressure was strong enough to take out the August 5 bottom at $2.475. This was the last low before a massive short-covering rally drove the market to $2.978 on September 17.
At 02:19 GMT, January natural gas futures are trading $2.474, down $0.005 or -0.20%.
Not only are the weather patterns changing, but the country is also split with winter storms on the western United States and milder temperatures elsewhere. Earlier in the week, weather models were supportive with rising expectations for a cold December. Then the models shifted to milder before trending warmer.
As far as the spot prices are concerned, storms and cold in the western United States helped lift December prices across the nation, but January prices fell by an average of 2 cents, and the balance of winter slipped 1 penny. Could this be an indication of a mild winter ahead?
West Coast versus Rest of the Country...
See also Nov. 18's:
"A Warm Winter Would Be 'Catastrophic' For Natural Gas"
And:
LNG: Singapore Gas Importer Cancels Tanker Load Due To Oversupply
Following the EIA storage report December futures are down 0.016 at 2.543, the January's are off 0.022 to 2.589. There is a lot of gas around.
We'll be back with the storage numbers after the more granular Weekly Update is released this afternoon.
And as an example of the excess of supply, from Reuters, November 19...
