Models Seen Weakening December Cold as Natural Gas Futures Extend Losses Early

As updated model runs weakened December heating demand expectations, natural gas futures continued to come under downward pressure in early trading Friday. After sliding 19.2 cents in the previous session, the January Nymex contract was down another 20.7 cents to $6.531/MMBtu at around 8:50 a.m. ET.

NatGasWeather observed notable warmer trends overnight from both the American and European weather models.

“Even after shedding demand in the overnight data,” the period from next Thursday through Dec. 15 remained “just cold enough for near normal national demand,” the firm said. However, the updated projections were “not as cold or impressive as what the weather data showed earlier in the week.”

Models had previously advertised a colder outlook for the first week of...