Natural Gas Futures Climb Early as Cooling Expected Later This Month

Natural gas futures recovered a few cents in early trading Wednesday as the latest forecasts showed colder temperatures arriving into the Midwest and East later this month. After sliding 5.5 cents in the previous session, the May Nymex contract was up 2.9 cents to $2.485/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET.

The updated forecast from Bespoke Weather Services early Wednesday showed only minor changes to the outlook.

“The 15-day period as a whole remains below normal in terms of projected demand” on “very warm” conditions for days one to five of the forecast, Bespoke said. Colder air is expected to arrive next week, “first into the middle of the nation, then spreading into the East and South later next week into the start of the following week.”

This would result in...