Dow Jpnes - Natural Gas Makes Small Gains On Weather Concerns

DJ Natural Gas Makes Small Gains on Weather Concerns




   By Timothy Puko


Natural gas futures rallied from losses Tuesday afternoon on persistent concerns about storms and hot weather.
  Prices for the front-month July contract gained 0.5 cent, or 0.2%, to $2.894 a million British thermal units on theNew York Mercantile Exchange. Trading flipped between gains and losses several times throughout the day, including a brief rise to the highest intraday price in nearly a month.

  Prices have been moving this week largely based on weather. Forecasts for a hot June have some expecting strong

demand for gas-fired power to run air conditioners. A tropical storm in the Gulf Coast also has some worried that it could threaten wells and processing plants in the region.

  Many have discounted that possibility in recent years as the shale-drilling boom has moved the most critical gas fields on short and often much farther north. But gas prices have fallen so far and so many bearish traders have piled in the market that many are nervous about even slim chances of prices turning around, traders and analysts have said.

 "Everybody is watching this storm," said John Kilduff, founding partner of Again Capital in New York, which invests

in energy commodities. "When you're under $3 like we are ... the market has been a bit reactive to (any) curtailment"

in production.



  With the summer still ahead, there is a lot of uncertainty, several traders have said. The possibility of a prolonged

heat wave and a surge of demand to run air conditioners has many concerned, even though supplies are ample. That kept

prices close to unchanged Tuesday and ricocheting within a 55-cent range since late April, said Dean Hazelcorn, trader

at the brokerage Coquest Inc. in Dallas.



  "Everybody's confused," he said. "That's why we go nowhere."





  Write to Timothy Puko at tim.puko@wsj.com





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  (END) Dow Jones Newswires



  June 16, 2015 14:49 ET (18:49 GMT)



  Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.



061615 18:49 -- GMT
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^^^^^^