As traders prepared for an extended weekend break that could deliver significant changes to January weather-driven demand expectations, natural gas futures hovered close to even early Friday.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

The January Nymex contract was up 0.3 cents to $2.575/MMBtu at around 8:41 a.m. ET. February was off 1.0 cents to $2.449.

A mix of overnight forecast changes saw the American model trend colder, countered by warmer trends from the European dataset, according to NatGasWeather.

Following “very light national demand” through Dec. 30, models continued to show chillier systems arriving around New Year’s Day for a “bump” in weather-driven demand heading into early January, according to the firm.

“What’s likely to be most important over the long weekend is whether more...