DJ Natural Gas Slips Despite Prospects for Stronger Demand
By Timothy Puko
Natural gas slipped Tuesday morning despite colder-weather forecasts suggesting stronger demand is on the way late
this month.
Analysts attributed the move to oil's fall and larger bearish trends in the gas market. Some energy traders have
been liquidating their gas holdings in recent weeks as oil has plummeted to a five-year low, analysts and brokers have
said. Even the cold weather on the way could be coming too late for enough heating demand to absorb the record supply
of U.S. natural gas, analysts said.
"There's just a pile up of reasons not to" buy big, said Teri Viswanath, a natural-gas strategist at BNP Paribas SA
in New York.
Natural gas for January delivery is down 8.5 cents, or 2.3%, at $3.634 a million British thermal units on the New
York Mercantile Exchange. The price is back down to within 7 cents of the seven-week low from Dec. 8.
December's first wave of below-normal temperatures is likely to hit Chicago and the East Coast by Dec. 27, Commodity
Weather Group said. But the demand outlook isn't clearly bullish because above-normal temperatures are still covering
half or more of the country through the next 10 days.
"It appears that this market could remain trapped in a choppy/sideways (trading) pattern through the rest of this
year," analyst Jim Ritterbusch said in a note to clients.
Physical gas for next-day delivery at the Henry Hub in Louisiana last traded at $3.5475/mmBtu, compared with Monday's
range of $3.6225-$3.7025. Cash prices at the Transco Z6 hub in New York traded in a bid-ask range of $3.63/mmBtu to
$3.67/mmBtu, compared with Monday's range of $3.70 to $3.76.
Write to Timothy Puko attim.puko@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 16, 2014 09:42 ET (14:42 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
121614 14:42 -- GMT
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