Natural gas futures attempted to claw back some of their recent losses in early trading Thursday as the market awaited the latest government inventory data. After climbing above $2.500/MMBtu earlier in the hour, the April Nymex contract was trading at $2.456/MMBtu as of around 8:40 a.m. ET, up 0.6 cents.

The April contract plunged 13.4 cents day/day in Wednesday’s session, but the front month held key support at $2.38, EBW Analytics Group analyst Eli Rubin observed.

“While the weather forecast continues to grind higher and the storage surplus may soon peak, the most pressing near-term challenge for natural gas bulls may still be defending technical support and averting the risks of another leg lower as near-term cold within the seven to 10 window ebbs into the end of March...