Despite favorable weather news, natural gas futures traded sideways Monday as worries mounted over a still-surging coronavirus pandemic and its potential impacts on economies and energy demand.

Markets

The January Nymex contract settled at $2.705/MMBtu, up a half-cent day/day. February ticked up eight-tenths of a cent to $2.689.

NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg., meanwhile, declined 19.5 cents to $2.815 amid a warm weather start to the week.

NatGasWeather said that while major models swayed back and forth between milder and colder trends over the weekend and into Monday, the American Global Forecast System ultimately settled on a colder outlook beginning around the Christmas holiday and continuing into early January.

“There’s still light demand to trudge through the next three...