Natural gas futures faltered on Wednesday, a second-consecutive loss, as analysts anticipated another soft government inventory print and traders started to look past a late-winter surge of cold and toward likely benign spring weather.

At A Glance:

  • Analysts see modest storage draw
  • Forecasts call for near-term cold
  • Mixed reads on gas production

The April Nymex gas futures contract settled at $2.439/MMBtu, down 13.4 cents day/day. May lost 14.4 cents to $2.546.

Over on the cash side, NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. shed 16.5 cents to $2.700.

NatGasWeather said cooler air and multiple bouts of late-winter storms would likely drive seasonally strong heating demand through the second half of March. The weather models Wednesday were “slightly to moderately bullish the next 15...