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Natural gas futures traders on Thursday found themselves caught between opposing fundamentals as a bearish 115 Bcf storage draw report collided with expectations of a wave of lasting wintry cold Friday that was expected to bring heavy snowfalls from Omaha, NE, to Chicago, to Washington, DC, to New York City. The March contract ended up closing the day’s regular session at $5.416, three-tenths of a penny below Wednesday’s finish.

Natural gas futures traders on Thursday found themselves caught between opposing fundamentals as a bearish 115 Bcf storage draw report collided with expectations of a wave of lasting wintry cold Friday that was expected to bring heavy snowfalls from Omaha, NE, to Chicago, to Washington, DC, to New York City. The March contract ended up closing the day’s regular session at $5.416, three-tenths of a penny below Wednesday’s finish.

Chevron Corp.’s Chevron Australia Pty. Ltd. last week said it found more gas in the Carnarvon Basin offshore Western Australia. The company also announced that it struck a long-term sales and purchase agreement (SPA) with Japan’s Chubu Electric Power Co. Inc. for a portion of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) to be produced from the Gorgon Project off Australia’s coast.

Bolstered by an arctic front swooping through the eastern half of the United States, natural gas futures found some support on Friday as the January contract reached a high of $4.676 before closing the regular session at $4.586, up 12.7 cents from Thursday’s close.

In spite of another prior-day futures decline, the cash market found enough cold weather in the forecast to justify increases at most locations Thursday.

While two prominent lawmakers have said they found room to agree on comprehensive climate change legislation in the Senate, the potential cost of a House climate change bill (HR 2454) still has some senators shaking their heads.

Not content with the prior session’s punch below the psychological $3 price level to a seven-year low, the bearish natural gas futures movement found follow-through on Friday to notch a new low for the move at $2.776 before closing out the day at $2.804, down 14.1 cents from Thursday and 43.4 cents lower than the previous week’s finish.

Although the Northeast remains unusually mild, the market found enough cooling load in high temperatures due to reach the 90s and 100s across most of the the southern U.S. and Midcontinent, backed up by moderate warming trends in the Midwest, Rockies and Pacific Northwest, to record gains at most points Thursday. A continuing futures loss a day earlier appeared to have little impact on Thursday’s cash prices.

The financial risk to companies in the S&P 500 would vary considerably under a carbon emission cap-and-trade program, an analysis has found. Earnings of most companies would be “relatively unaffected,” but some could face costs that could more than offset all their earnings, according to a report by the nonprofit Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute (IRRC) and Trucost, a carbon data analyst.