Natural Gas Futures Slide Early as EIA Report Not Expected to Provide Bullish Momentum

With overnight forecasts shedding a small amount of heating demand from the outlook, and with traders preparing to digest updated government inventory data, natural gas futures eased lower in early trading Thursday. The May Nymex contract was down 2.1 cents to $2.597/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET.

For this week’s U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) storage report, analysts are generally expecting a build in the mid-60s Bcf.

A Bloomberg survey found injection estimates ranged from 62 Bcf to 79 Bcf, with a median of 66 Bcf. The median of a Reuters poll landed at a build of 66 Bcf; injection estimates spanned 50 Bcf to 79 Bcf. NGI forecasted an injection of 67 Bcf for the period, which covers the week ended April 9.

An injection in line with consensus predictions would...