The December natural gas futures contract opened its front-month campaign with a whimper, hampered by warming trends in weather forecasts, profit-taking and expectations for one more stout storage increase.

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At A Glance:

  • Futures shed 13.1 cents
  • Forecasts trend warmer
  • NGI models 82 Bcf build

Coming off solid gains over the course of the prior week, the December Nymex gas contract shed 13.1 cents on Monday and settled at $3.352/MMBtu to close its first session at the front of the curve. 

NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. raced the other direction, soaring 48.5 cents to $3.380 amid the northern freeze that endured from last week and expanded to the East and South.

NatGasWeather said traders booked profits Monday following a rally in futures markets through most of last week that...