Natural gas futures continued to rebound early Thursday as traders awaited the latest government storage report and as models honed in on a frigid Lower 48 temperature outlook heading into the back half of December. 

The January Nymex contract was up 13.3 cents to $5.856/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET. February was up 10.7 cents to $5.724.

After a stretch of heavy selling going back to last week, the January contract rebounded in Wednesday’s session, bouncing “off a key technical inflection point near $5.38-5.40” that ushered in profit-taking among traders holding short positions, EBW Analytics Group senior analyst Eli Rubin said. 

The gains also occurred on a colder temperature outlook for later in the month, the analyst noted.

“If weather holds,” the 15-day...