By Timothy Puko
Natural-gas futures are holding very close to unchanged as investors stay focused on data showing a recent decline in
production levels.
Natural gas for July delivery rose 0.6 cent, or 0.2%, to $2.643 a million British thermal units on the New York
Mercantile Exchange. Prices have stayed within a 3-cent range.
Market moves have been small for two days with analysts citing major data revisions issued Friday by the U.S. Energy
Information Administration. The EIA said in a monthly report that production fell in March for the second time this
year, and it also cut the production numbers it had already reported for earlier this year.
That makes traders nervous about the accuracy of the data they are getting and their understanding of the market's
supply-and-demand balance, said Frank Clements, co-owner of Meridian Energy Brokers Inc. outside New York. While
production is still at near-record levels and the market is oversupplied, many traders are simply covering their bets
to protect themselves rather than continuing a hard selloff that had caused a five-session losing skid last week, he
said.
"That put the kibosh on the drop that we had," Mr. Clements said. "When there's uncertainty, people are unsure of how
to react."
Physical gas for next-day delivery at the Henry Hub in Louisiana last traded at $2.62/mmBtu, compared with Monday's
range of $2.59-$2.6225. Cash prices at the Transco Z6 hub in New York traded in a bid-ask range of $1.90/mmBtu to
$2.35/mmBtu, compared with Monday's range of $2.24 to $2.50.
Write to Timothy Puko at tim.puko@wsj.com
(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires
June 02, 2015 09:28 ET (13:28 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
060215 13:28 -- GMT
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