DJ Natural Gas Bounces Off Seven-Week Low
By Nicole Friedman
NEW YORK--Natural-gas prices ticked higher Monday as traders looked ahead to a last bout of cold weather.
Futures for May delivery settled up 0.5 cent, or 0.2%, at $2.644 a million British thermal units on the New York
Mercantile Exchange.
Futures fell to a seven-week low Friday as market participants expected the onset of spring to reduce demand for the
heating fuel. Although spring has officially begun, some below-normal weather is still expected in the eastern U.S. in
the next two weeks. Natural gas consumption rises when temperatures drop, as consumers turn up gas-powered indoor
heating and power generators burn more natural gas to meeting electric-heating demand.
"There's still a bit of weather-based demand in this market," said Aaron Calder, analyst at Gelber & Associates, in a
note.
However, robust production is expected to keep a lid on price gains this spring, analysts say.
U.S. natural-gas inventories grew in the week ended March 20 due to ample production. Stockpiles of the fuel
typically deplete between October and April as frigid weather leads to higher consumption of natural gas. The recent
increase was the first of the year and came a week or two earlier than expected.
"There are no signs that production is falling away," said Barclays in a note. "The strength of production is the
reason, despite the cold beginning of the shoulder season, net injections have started at the earliest point since
2012."
Write to Nicole Friedman at nicole.friedman@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 30, 2015 15:23 ET (19:23 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
033015 19:23 -- GMT
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