After rocketing higher amid intensifying January cold expectations, natural gas futures pared their gains early Thursday as one of the major weather models advertised warmer trends overnight. The February Nymex contract was down 25.9 cents to $4.598/MMBtu at around 8:55 a.m. ET.

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NatGasWeather early Thursday highlighted notable warmer trends overnight from the American model. However, the European model disagreed and maintained the weather-driven demand it had added over the previous 24 hours, according to the firm.

“Most important, the European model remained extremely cold for Jan. 20-27,” NatGasWeather said. Even after demand losses overnight, the American dataset “still forecast the coldest pattern for Jan. 20-27 compared to any other week so far this...