With the market left to contemplate lingering cooling demand and stubborn storage deficits, natural gas futures continued to push higher in early trading Wednesday. The October Nymex contract was up 29.3 cents to $8.577/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

The weather outlook underwent only small adjustments based on the overnight data, continuing to show widespread above normal temperatures next week, according to NatGasWeather.

“The overnight data maintained unseasonably strong upper high pressure expanding to rule much of the U.S. next week, Sept. 18-22, resulting in widespread above normal temperatures,” the firm said.

However, at this point in the season highs will be comfortable over northern portions of the country, NatGasWeather added. Peak temperatures in the upper 80s...