Natural gas futures rallied early Wednesday, bolstered by colder shifts for early January in updated forecasts. The expiring January Nymex contract was up 12.2 cents to $2.672/MMBtu at around 8:47 a.m. ET. February was trading at $2.527, up 10.8 cents.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

Both the American and European weather models added heating degree days (HDD) to the outlook overnight, and the European model was advertising an additional 13 HDD versus projections 24 hours earlier, NatGasWeather said early Wednesday.

“Very light demand will continue through the weekend despite a slow-moving weather system bringing rain and snow to the east-central U.S.,” the firm said. Limited coverage of freezing high temperatures means this period “simply isn’t cold enough to intimidate.”

The Midwest and...