As weekend forecast trends lowered August cooling demand expectations, natural gas futures pulled back in early trading Monday. The September Nymex contract was off 31.9 cents to $7.745/MMBtu as of around 8:40 a.m. ET.

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Weather models trended cooler over the weekend, including a decline of nine cooling degree days (CDD) in the European model’s projections, according to NatGasWeather.

The next 15 days are still expected to bring generally above-normal CDD totals, but “with much more comfortable temperatures arriving over the East” this week through Aug. 20, “national demand just won’t be nearly as intimidating as it’s been the past six weeks,” NatGasWeather said. 

Meanwhile, with estimates showing output reaching all-time highs above 98 Bcf/d, production has been...