Natural gas futures could not hold onto early gains Thursday after the latest government storage data failed to generate any buzz in the market. Profit-taking managed to push January Nymex gas futures to a $4.335/MMBtu intraday high early in the session, but with a stubbornly mild weather forecast, the contract eventually settled at $4.056, down 20.2 cents. February slipped 19.1 cents to $3.997.

storage

At A Glance:

  • Futures shed $1.40-plus in four days
  • Storage deficit expands, but surplus possible
  • Northeast lone region to post cash gains

Spot gas prices also continued to soften, except in the cooler Northeast. Multi-dollar gains there boosted NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. by 10.5 cents to $4.175.

Changes in the long-range weather models have been small in recent days, doing little...