Leticia Gonzales

Early selling in natural gas futures failed to hold, with erratic, non-fundamentally driven price fluctuations continuing midweek. After sinking to a $1.774 intraday low, the May Nymex gas futures contract settled Wednesday at $1.939, up 11.8 cents on the day. Increases continued throughout the curve, with June picking up 6.9 cents to hit $2.053.

Still struggling to get a grasp on how much demand is being lost amid the coronavirus pandemic, natural gas traders on Monday took their cue from unparalleled deterioration in the oil markets. After an initial sell-off early in the session, the May Nymex gas futures contract rallied, shattering resistance and settling the day at $1.924, up 17.1 cents from Friday’s close. June climbed 14.6 cents to $2.049.

One day after an oil market tailspin sent natural gas futures exploding higher, May natural gas stopped to catch their breath before going on to nosedive.

Despite an increase in weather-driven demand expectations over the weekend, technical factors and broader bearishness across the energy sector helped keep the pressure on natural gas prices in early trading Monday. The May Nymex contract was down 2.6 cents to $1.727/MMBtu at around 8:30 a.m. ET.

Still struggling to get a grasp on how much demand is being lost amid the coronavirus pandemic, natural gas traders on Monday took their cue from unparalleled deterioration in the oil markets. After an initial sell-off early in the session, the May Nymex gas futures contract rallied, shattering resistance and settling the day at $1.924, up 17.1 cents from Friday’s close. June climbed 14.6 cents to $2.049.

Natural gas futures treaded water for much of Thursday, not even blinking when the latest storage data painted an increasingly bleak demand outlook. Instead, the rapid pace of falling production grabbed traders’ attention, while some short-covering also likely came into play. The May Nymex gas futures contract settled at $1.686, up 8.8 cents from Wednesday’s close. June shot up 9.7 cents to $1.845.

With the possibility of continued cold out the window, the fallout from coronavirus-related restrictions dominated natural gas forward markets for the April 8-15 period.

Natural gas futures extended their rally to cap off a week in which the coronavirus pandemic continued to decimate demand and producers snatched more rigs off the field. The May Nymex gas futures contract settled Friday at $1.753, up 6.7 cents from Thursday’s close. June rose 5.8 cents to $1.903.

Some back and forth in spot gas markets during the April 13-17 period ultimately ended with mostly lower prices for week/week as remnants of cold weather began to move out of the country. Despite some pockets of cold expected to linger the next couple of days, NGI’s Weekly Spot Gas National Avg. slipped 2.5 cents to $1.495.