Dow Jones - Natural Gas Slips On Weather Outlook

DJ Natural Gas Slips on Weather Outlook

By Nicole Friedman

     NEW YORK -- Natural gas retreated from a 10-month high Wednesday as traders bet that temperatures in the next two
weeks would be cooler than previously expected, limiting natural-gas demand.

     Futures for July delivery fell 9.1 cents, or 3.3%, to $2.677 a million British thermal units on the New York
Mercantile Exchange.

     Prices rose Tuesday to the highest settlement since August on expectations that hot weather would spur increased
demand for the power-generation fuel, helping to shrink the glut of natural gas. But temperature outlooks released
Wednesday showed cooler weather in the next two weeks than previously forecast.

     "Prices have seen sharp gains over the past 3 weeks, but...the early July pattern isn't quite hot enough" to
sustain the rally, said forecaster NatGasWeather.com in a note. "National nat gas demand will gradually ease next week
as slow moving weather systems meander across the eastern U.S. with heavy showers and thunderstorms, providing several
degrees of cooling and near-normal temperatures."

     Traders are waiting on weekly inventory data due Thursday. The natural-gas market is oversupplied following
sluggish wintertime demand.

     Analysts and traders surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect the data to show that storage levels rose by 59
billion cubic feet in the week ended June 17, less than the average injection for this time of year.

     If the storage estimate is correct, inventories as of June 17 totaled 3.1 trillion cubic feet, 25% above levels
from a year ago and 28% above the five-year average for the same week.

     Write to Nicole Friedman at nicole.friedman@wsj.com


  (END) Dow Jones Newswires

  June 22, 2016 16:37 ET (20:37 GMT)

  Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

062216 20:37 -- GMT
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