Natural gas futures continued to retreat early Friday as a generally supportive result from the latest government inventory data was failing to sustain bullish momentum from the week-earlier period.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

The November Nymex contract was down 5.3 cents to $3.291/MMBtu at around 8:33 a.m. ET, conceding a chunk of the hefty gains posted late last week.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday reported an 84 Bcf injection into Lower 48 storage for the week ending Oct. 6, tighter versus both the 125 Bcf year-earlier build and the 93 Bcf five-year average.

Total Lower 48 working gas in underground storage exited the period at 3,529 Bcf, a 163 Bcf surplus to the five-year average, according to EIA.

While the latest EIA print was supportive, a combination of...