Coming off a strong rally in the previous session, natural gas futures hovered close to even early Wednesday as forecasts maintained strong heat for the second week of June. The July Nymex contract was up 1.4 cents to $3.118/MMBtu at around 8:50 a.m. ET.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

Projections from the European weather model lost several cooling degree days (CDD) overnight for the June 13-17 time frame, according to NatGasWeather. This would see heat ease compared to projected temperatures for Sunday through June 12, which remained “plenty hot enough to satisfy” natural gas markets in the firm’s latest forecast.

“Any further cooler trends for June 13-17 and the pattern might not be hot enough to satisfy, thereby requiring close monitoring in the days ahead,” NatGas Weather said.

In terms of...