DJ Natural Gas Closes Lower on Cool Weather Forecasts
By Timothy Puko
NEW YORK--Natural-gas prices closed lower for the second straight session as cool weather forecasts keep setting low
expectations for demand starting next week.
The front-month October contract settled down 4.3 cents, or 1.1%, to $3.847 a million British thermal units on the
New York Mercantile Exchange. After a two-day surge last week, prices have fallen back into the 30-cent range they had
traded in since July 18.
Two different cool weather patterns are likely to hit most of the country in the next two weeks, emerging now even as
several parts of the country feel their hottest weather of the summer. The Rockies and the central U.S. are likely to
see the most fall-like weather, with comfortable highs in the 60s and 70s early next week, according to according to
Weather Services International in Andover, Mass.
"There is no question this is a major cold shot into the target areas for a cold September," WeatherBELL Analytics
LLC in New York said in its afternoon update. "However, this should not hit and hold, but come and go as the core of
the cool pulls back westward in the longer term."
Comfortable temperatures usually mean lower demand for gas heating or air conditioners run by gas-fired electricity.
A mild summer has already caused large losses for gas prices as record production keeps overwhelming limited demand.
Producers likely added 73 billion cubic feet of gas to stockpiles last week, nearly a third more than the usual
addition for that time of year, according to the average forecast of 19 analysts, brokers and traders surveyed
Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal. That would bring stockpiles within 16% of their five-year average level for this
time of year, compared with a deficit had been more than 50% to start the spring, according to data from the U.S.
Energy Information Administration.
Write to Timothy Puko at tim.puko@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 03, 2014 15:00 ET (19:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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