DJ Natural-Gas Prices Fall Slightly on Strong Supply
By Timothy Puko
NEW YORK--Natural-gas prices inched down Friday as traders stayed focused on the healthy supply overwhelming the
market.
Natural gas for October delivery is down 0.5 cents, or 0.1%, at $3.814 a million British thermal units on the New
York Mercantile Exchange. Trading has stayed within about a four-cent range.
Volume is light as traders settle into the calm fall season. Prices already fell 6% in three straight losing sessions
to start the week and traders are unlikely to keep pushing hard ahead of the weekend and weather forecast updates,
analysts said.
Short-covering -- where traders who bet prices would fall then buy back in to close out winning bets -- has boosted
prices at times on Friday, but there is little other news to move the market, said Gene McGillian, a broker and analyst
at Tradition Energy. Record production keeps pushing prices lower, but traders and brokers say the risk of a cold
winter limits the losses.
"There's a growing reluctance on the part of people to really expose themselves to being short," Mr. McGillian said.
They also see the potential for at least a small demand spike from the weather. A mild summer is giving way to a cool
September, likely leading to a slightly unseasonable amount of days where home heating is necessary, said Jason Setree,
a meteorologist at Commodity Weather Group LLC in Bethesda, Md. Temperatures next week could be 10 to 20 degrees
Fahrenheit below average across the plains states and the Midwest, with highs in the 50s and 60s and lows down in to
the 30s, according to Weather Services International in Andover, Mass.
Physical gas for next-day delivery at the Henry Hub in Louisiana last traded at $3.85/mmBtu, compared with Thursday's
range of $3.88-$3.92. Cash prices at the Transco Z6 hub in New York last traded at $1.98/mmBtu, compared with
Thursday's range of $2.73 to $2.80.
Write to Timothy Puko at tim.puko@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwireshttp://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires">http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
>
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 05, 2014 09:33 ET (13:33 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
090514 13:33 -- GMT
------
No comments:
Post a Comment