Dow Jones - Natural Gas Futures Little Changed Ahead of Hot Weekend

DJ Natural Gas Futures Little Changed Ahead of Hot Weekend


   By Timothy Puko


  Natural gas prices flip-flopped around unchanged Friday as traders get ready for a hot weekend, but one that may
signal the peak of summer.

  Natural gas futures for September delivery recently rose 0.5 cent, or 0.2%, to $2.773 a million British thermal units
on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Trading has been limited to a four-cent range for the day and prices are holding
to the middle of a 31-cent range they have been stuck in for nearly two months.

  On the last session for the week, trading could be limited mostly to book-squaring moves amid larger conflicting
signals, analysts said.

  This is traditionally the hottest period of the summer, and demand for gas-fired power to run air conditioners has
been strong and growing, analysts said. But weather forecasts for the coming weeks show heat dissipating and large
parts of the country likely to get cooler-than-normal temperatures.

  "Even with this heat, the market knows it's not likely to linger," said Teri Viswanath, a natural-gas strategist at
BNP Paribas SA in New York. "At this point, the market is weighing whether to write off the summer."

  Physical gas for next-day delivery at the Henry Hub in Louisiana last traded at $2.775/mmBtu, compared with
Thursday's range of $2.835-$2.87. Cash prices at the Transco Z6 hub in New York traded in a bid-ask range of
$2.05/mmBtu to $2.40/mmBtu, compared with Thursday's range of $2.77-$2.89.


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


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  (END) Dow Jones Newswires

  July 31, 2015 10:02 ET (14:02 GMT)

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

073115 14:02 -- GMT
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