DJ Natural Gas Boosted by Hotter Weather Forecasts
By Timothy Puko
Natural gas prices made largest one-day gains in a month as hotter weather forecasts suggest a chance for rising
demand.
Prices for the front-month July contract rose 11.5 cents, or 4.4%, to $2.705 a million British thermal units on
the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the largest one-day gains since May 8 and snapped a three-session losing
streak.
Weather forecasts are suggesting unseasonably warm temperatures in the Midwest and parts of the East Coast for
about the next week. It won't be "a major sustained heat wave," but temperatures could push into the mid-90s in the
lower mid-Atlantic region, Commodity Weather Group LLC in Bethesda, Md., said in a note.
"For the next three months hot weather will have the greatest impact on storage," Kent Bayazitoglu, analyst at
Gelber & Associates said in a note.
Gas storage levels don't rise as quickly and prices often climb as hot weather gets people to turn on their air
conditioners and power plants burn more gas to meet the demand. Some traders have become concerned that prices have
fallen too far for early June, when there is still a chance ahead for a long, hot summer to ramp up demand.
"Natural gas is a very volatile commodity," said Tom Saal, a broker at INTL FCStone Latin America in Miami. "We've
got a little bit of weather, it doesn't have to be a lot, and (the market) shows some sensitivity to it."
Write to Timothy Puko at tim.puko@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 08, 2015 15:05 ET (19:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
060815 19:05 -- GMT
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