Natural Gas Futures Called Lower Following Bearish Shift in Euro Weather Model

As traders accounted for milder trends in the latest forecasts and potential price impacts from upcoming government inventory data, natural gas futures were trading a few ticks lower early Thursday. The February Nymex contract was down 1.8 cents to $2.698/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET.

As of early Thursday, the American and European weather models had split over the previous 24 hours. The American model added heating demand and the “normally more skillful” European dataset lost demand, delaying a potential “cold connection” that could bring chillier temperatures to the Lower 48 later this month, according to analysts at EBW Analytics Group.

Should the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) 10:30 a.m. ET storage report deviate from consensus expectations it “could...