Natural gas futures continued to slide in early trading Friday as the market mulled evidence of a looser supply/demand balance in the latest government inventory data. Coming off a 12.6-cent sell-off in the previous session, the September Nymex contract was down another 3.9 cents to $3.894/MMBtu at around 8:50 a.m. ET.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday reported a 49 Bcf injection into U.S. natural gas stocks for the week ending Aug. 6, in line with market expectations. The build compared with a 55 Bcf year-ago injection and a five-year average 42 Bcf build.

Noting the much leaner 13 Bcf injection reported in the prior week, Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH) analysts attributed the “whipsaw week/week” to lower power generation, which was down an...