‘Relief Rally’ Continues for Natural Gas Early as Forecasts Hint at January Cold

With forecasts hinting that exceptional December warmth could eventually give way to January chills, natural gas futures continued to recover in early trading Monday.

After rallying 9.9 cents on Friday, the January Nymex contract was up another 7.2 cents to $2.563/MMBtu at around 8:30 a.m. ET.

EBW Analytics Group analyst Eli Rubin characterized the recent Nymex futures strength as a relief rally following relentless selling pressure earlier in the season.

“How high can the natural gas relief rally go? In our view, this is a thorny question pitting pent-up technical momentum higher against a fundamentally treacherous market outlook,” Rubin said.

Natural gas prices saw “huge volatility” last week, with mild December weather driving a “steep sell-off on the front...