DJ Natural Gas Rebounds on Cold Weather Forecasts
By Timothy Puko
Natural gas prices are posting their second-straight session of large gains as colder updates to weather forecasts
are pushing a rebound.
Futures for March delivery recently traded up 5.4 cents, or 2.6%, at $2.117 per million British thermal units on the
New York Mercantile Exchange. It is up 7.4% since closing at a six-week low below $2/mmBtu on Thursday.
Weather is one of the biggest drivers for U.S. natural-gas prices because about half of the country's homes use gas
for heat. Prices earlier this winter fell to an all-time low for Nymex trading after a historically warm December, and
have been trading at around $2/mmBtu because of the glut left in storage. But those low prices have also set the stage
for sharp rebounds ahead of sharp blasts of winter weather.
Private forecasters are predicting a spate of extreme cold starting in the Plains and southeast and then stretching
over the entire East Coast during the next 10 days. From Saturday into early next week, the Gulf Coast could see highs
in just the 20s and 30s, and temperatures 15 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit below normal, Weather Services International in
Andover, Mass.
"Winter is not dead," Aaron Calder, senior market analyst at energy-consulting firm Gelber & Associates in Houston,
said in a note. "The next week will feature some brutally cold temperatures in the Northeast."
Write to Timothy Puko at tim.puko@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 08, 2016 12:35 ET (17:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
020816 17:35 -- GMT
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