Natural gas futures pared their recent gains in early trading Wednesday as recent weather model runs lowered demand expectations for the next two weeks. After rallying 12.1 cents in the previous session, the February Nymex contract was down 4.4 cents to $2.658/MMBtu at around 8:50 a.m. ET.

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As of early Wednesday weather models had “backed off cold potential in a big way” over the previous 24 hours, according to Bespoke Weather Services. The firm said the American model had dropped more than 25 gas-weighted degree days (GWDD) compared to 24 hours prior, with the European model similarly losing nearly 20 GWDD.

Bespoke attributed the change in the forecasts to a “trend away from a neutral to negative” Eastern Pacific Oscillation (EPO).

“We would be cautious in accepting...