Hotter overnight trends in the weather data helped natural gas futures to rebound sharply in early trading Friday, with prices continuing upward after a strong finish to the previous session. The September Nymex contract was up 9.1 cents to $3.921/MMBtu at around 8:50 a.m. ET.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

The European weather model overnight added a “hefty” 10 cooling degree days (CDD) to its temperature projections for next week through the end of August, according to NatGasWeather.

The model “remained quite hot versus normal for next week but still favors national demand easing to lighter levels after,” NatGasWeather said. 

However, the latest run slowed the transition to lighter demand by one to two days, with the pattern now not expected to switch “from bullish to neutral/slightly...