Colder overnight trends for late April from one of the major weather models saw natural gas futures climb several cents in early trading Friday. The May Nymex contract was up 3.1 cents to $2.689/MMBtu at around 8:50 a.m. ET.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

The European weather model added 12 heating degree days (HDD) overnight, with colder trends impacting the northern United States early next week through April 26, according to NatGasWeather.

For the last ten days of April the European model is now colder than its American counterpart by close to 20 HDD, and the divergence between the models will need to be resolved, the firm said.

“With the overnight European data trending notably colder over the past 24 hours, we look to see if this leads to further buying ahead of the weekend break and whether May...