Settling

With winter cold settling in and natural gas futures prices rising, the New York Mercantile Exchange Inc. (Nymex) said Friday that it is increasing the margins for its natural gas futures, Henry Hub swap futures, Henry Hub penultimate swap futures, Nymex miNYTM natural gas futures and Henry Hub swing swap futures. The changes were to go into effect at the close of business Monday.

With winter cold settling in and natural gas futures prices rising, the New York Mercantile Exchange Inc. (Nymex) announced Friday that it is increasing the margins for its natural gas futures, Henry Hub swap futures, Henry Hub penultimate swap futures, Nymex miNYTM natural gas futures and Henry Hub swing swap futures, for the second time in a week (see Daily GPI, Dec. 6). The exchange also said Friday that it is upping natural gas index swap futures. The latest increases are scheduled to go into affect at the end of the day Monday, Dec. 12.

Despite beginning the day slowly Friday, October natural gas futures in afternoon trade went from nearly unchanged to lower in a hurry, settling at $11.144, down 19.2 cents on the day and 11.9 cents lower than the previous Friday’s close.

While the entire petroleum futures complex saw large declines in a holiday-shortened trading session Friday, October natural gas futures ended up settling at $11.691, just 6.6 cents lower than Thursday’s settle but $1.885 greater than the previous Friday’s close. With small amounts of natural gas production returning to the Gulf of Mexico, questions as to the extent of the damages and the duration of shut-ins still remain.

After penetrating lower on Monday, August natural gas staged a rebound in Tuesday’s session, trading as high as $7.470 before settling at $7.425, up 14.1 cents on the day.

Staying strong at the end of a meteoric week, July natural gas futures kept pushing higher Friday, reaching a high of $7.73 before settling at $7.69, up 7.7 cents on the day but a whopping 75.8 cents higher than last week’s settle.

Choosing to run with the petroleum complex Wednesday, July natural gas futures skyrocketed in the afternoon, reaching a high of $6.80 before settling at $6.789, up an astounding 41 cents on the session.

Breaking paths with the petroleum futures complex, June natural gas on Wednesday traded within a 15-cent range on the day before settling at $6.683, down 1.1 cents on the day.

After settling below the psychological $7.00 mark for the first time since Sept. 27 on Thursday, December natural gas futures rebounded Friday on sympathy with soaring prices in the petroleum futures complex. The natural gas futures prompt month vaulted back above $7.00 to settle at $7.115, up 24.2 cents on the day.