A drop in cooling demand expectations over the extended weekend, set against a backdrop of a prolonged outage at a major U.S. export facility, saw natural gas futures extend their losses in early trading Tuesday.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

Coming off a 52.0-cent plunge back on Friday, the July Nymex contract was down another 26.0 cents to $6.684/MMBtu at around 8:50 a.m. ET.

Forecasts made a “significant shift away from high heat” over the holiday weekend, with moderating temperatures expected to bring cooling demand toward normal levels for the end of June into early July, according to Bespoke Weather Services.

The price drop as of early Tuesday “may seem excessive just based on what could wind up a short-term weather change,” but “we must consider that strong weather is what was necessary...