Natural gas futures continued to retreat sharply midweek in yet another display of the market being largely disengaged from fundamentals. After bouncing back to a $7.410 intraday high, the May Nymex gas futures contract settled Wednesday at $6.937/MMBtu, down 23.9 cents from Tuesday’s close. June futures slid 21.2 cents to $7.065.

At A Glance:

  • Talk of production growth seen behind price decline
  • Hefty storage deficits possibly persisting
  • Spot gas slides as temperatures warm

Spot gas prices also continued to soften, with the coldest weather that slammed the East Coast this week now in the rearview mirror. NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. dropped 27.0 cents to $6.695.

After the meteoric rise over the past month and a half, a pullback in Nymex futures was expected. However,...