Natural gas traders appeared to need more convincing that the hugely bullish miss in the latest government inventory data holds water. After bouncing as much as 14.0 cents off its intraday low, the September Nymex gas futures contract settled Thursday at $2.519, up only 2.2 cents from Wednesday’s close. October futures picked up 4.4 cents to reach $2.636.

At A Glance:

  • Production falls to 97 Bcf/d
  • Forecasts for mixed demand
  • NGI models draw of 41 Bcf

Spot gas prices were mixed, with western U.S. locations rebounding from a multi-day sell-off. NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. slipped 3.5 cents to $2.230.

With only minor fluctuations in the weather data, price action early Thursday was solely driven by the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) weekly storage report, which...