January Natural Gas Called Fractionally Higher as Bearish Weather Headwinds Remain

Natural gas futures advanced a few ticks higher early Wednesday as a warm December temperature outlook was seen trending marginally colder overnight.

The January Nymex contract was up 0.9 cents to $2.320/MMBtu at around 8:33 a.m. ET. February was trading at $2.252, up 1.2 cents.

Both the American and European weather models underwent modest colder changes overnight, though bearish weather headwinds remained, according to NatGasWeather.

Updated models continued to advertise an “exceptionally warm/red/bearish” pattern that would result in close to 150 Bcf less demand versus normal for the 15-day projection period, the firm estimated.

Models “maintained little coverage of subfreezing highs over the U.S. the next 15 days, a necessity if stronger demand is to occur,”...