Natural Gas Futures Reverse Lower After Warmer Forecast Trends

With updated forecasts easing back on the amount of late-season cold expected for the eastern Lower 48 later this month, natural gas futures reversed lower in early trading Friday. After picking up 7.5 cents in the previous session, the April Nymex contract was down 10.7 cents to $2.407/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET.

The European weather model underwent a notable warmer shift overnight, dropping 11 heating degree days from the outlook to bring it into better agreement with the American dataset, according to NatGasWeather.

The warmer trends “were due to a warmer break over the southern and eastern U.S. late next week,” the firm said. The model’s outlook was also “not quite as cold with weather systems to follow March 25-30.”

Maxar’s Weather Desk similarly noted...