Weekly natural gas cash prices and futures descended in tandem during a holiday-shortened stretch of trading defined by benign weather, weak demand and stout production.

With traders focused on supply/demand imbalance, NGI’s Weekly Spot Gas National Avg. for the Jan. 17-20 period slid 8.5 cents to $5.490.

At the close of a trading week that was abbreviated by one day because of the Martin Luther King holiday, Columbia Gas was down 17.0 cents to $2.635, while Cove Point was off 67.0 cents to $3.100 and Chicago Citygate was down 19.5 cents to $3.025.

The February Nymex futures contract lost ground three out of four days during the week. It settled at $3.174/MMBtu to close trading Friday, down 10.1 cents on the day and down 7% from the prior week’s finish.

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