Natural gas futures hovered close to even early Wednesday as traders appeared to be keeping their powder dry ahead of potentially the coldest stretch of the winter season so far. The February Nymex contract was up 1.4 cents to $4.297/MMBtu at around 9 a.m. ET.

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The February contract went as high as $4.385 in after-hours trading in what EBW Analytics Group senior analyst Eli Rubin characterized as a “sideways” pattern.

Traders are taking a “wait-and-see approach” that suggests “a lack of confidence in how prices will react to frigid near-term weather, and few concerns regarding the still-robust storage trajectory,” Rubin said. “We believe the market is moderately underestimating the extent of near-term cold and its effect on production freeze-offs and on withdrawals,...