Natural gas futures were headed for another daily decline through midday trading Tuesday before a sudden burst higher around 2 p.m. ET threatened to give market onlookers whiplash. Cash prices for the most part were advancing modestly off recent lows.

Here’s the latest:

  • May Nymex futures at $1.722/MMBtu as of 2:14 p.m. ET, up 3.1 cents
  • Front month briefly surged to $1.802

The afternoon rally seemed to defy any immediate explanation, at least in terms of fundamentals. Prior to that point, mild weather and declining LNG demand had prices trading lower. 

  • Flows to U.S. liquefied natural gas export terminals down to 9.47 million Dth/d for Tuesday, according to data from NGI’s LNG Export Tracker

The Cameron, Corpus Christi and Sabine Pass terminals have all seen a drop in...