DJ Natural Gas Inches Down as Traders Await Stockpile Report
By Timothy Puko
NEW YORK--Natural-gas prices are flip-flopping around unchanged Thursday with traders consolidating ahead of the
weekly update on stockpiles.
Natural gas for December delivery dropped 1.5 cents, or 0.4%, to $4.179 a million British thermal units on the New
York Mercantile Exchange. Prices had peaked in off-hours trading at $4.245/mmBtu but started to retreat again after the
trading floor opened.
The market had been rallying in its largest move to start November since 2000, according to BNP Paribas SA. Cold
weather forecasts have been raising expectations for home-heating demand, but, after an 18% rally in less than two
weeks, there's little value left for buyers, said John Woods, president of JJ Woods Associates and a Nymex floor
trader.
"We've had a huge jump up," Mr. Woods said. "What's your reward there if you're stepping into the market fresh?"
He is out of the market this morning, like many traders who spend Thursday's opening on hold until the U.S. Energy
Information Administration's weekly update on natural gas storage levels. It comes out at 10:30 a.m. EDT.
Analysts, traders and brokers expect the report to show an 86 billion-cubic-feet addition for the week that ended
Oct. 10, according to The Wall Street Journal's weekly survey. That would be more than double the average addition for
this time of year, according to EIA data.
That outsized addition could initially cause a selloff, but it's likely to be short, BNP's natural-gas strategist
Teri Viswanath said in her morning note. Weather forecasts--already cold--are getting colder. MDA Weather Services
called it a "polar outbreak," predicting arctic air will cover most of the country next week and drop temperatures as
much as 17-degrees- Fahrenheit below normal in some of the major Midwestern markets for heating.
"The prospect of strong heating demand ... has given bargain-minded investors an excuse to rush back into the US
natural gas market," Ms. Viswanath said. "The timing and magnitude of this year's price run-up is unprecedented."
Physical gas for next-day delivery at the Henry Hub in Louisiana last traded at $3.90/mmBtu, compared with
Wednesday's range of $3.725-$3.90. Cash prices at the Transco Z6 hub in New last traded at $3.80/mmBtu, compared with
Wednesday's range of $3.15 to $3.40.
Write to Timothy Puko at tim.puko@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 06, 2014 09:49 ET (14:49 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
110614 14:49 -- GMT
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