Natural gas futures pared their recent gains in early trading Thursday as the market prepared to digest updated government inventory data, expected to show a lighter-than-average spring injection. Coming off a 36.1-cent rally in the previous session, the June Nymex contract was down 18.6 cents to $7.153/MMBtu at around 8:50 a.m. ET.

Storage Snapshot

The latest Energy Information Administration (EIA) storage report, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET, is expected to show a lighter-than-average injection into U.S. natural gas stocks for the week ended April 22, according to estimates.

The median of 11 estimates submitted to a Bloomberg survey as of Wednesday was a 38 Bcf injection for the period, with predictions ranging from injections of 20 Bcf to 50 Bcf. The five-year average injection for the period...