Markets

August natural gas is expected to open 5 cents lower Wednesday morning at $2.71 as the technical environment weakens and the weather outlook holds mostly steady. Overnight oil markets fell again.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has ordered Barclays Bank plc to pay a $560,000 civil penalty for failing to submit accurate large trader reports (LTR) for physical commodity swap positions, including transactions involving natural gas and crude oil.

In Tuesday’s cash trading, natural gas put the futures in the rearview mirror and recorded a 5-cent gain to $2.56, while futures tumbled more than 22 cents. Wednesday saw futures nearly return the favor, as the NGI National Spot Gas Average fell 2 cents to $2.54, and futures were able to add a couple of pennies.

August natural gas is expected to open 13 cents lower Tuesday morning at $2.86 as traders point to a recovery in production from earlier interrupted levels. Overnight oil markets fell hard.

Natural gas forwards markets showed no signs of hitting the brakes June 24-30 as scorching temperatures continued to drive power burn and storage data once again reflected a tighter supply-demand balance.

Falling supplies and healthy demand have led Raymond James & Associates Inc. to join other gas bulls by raising its 2016 Henry Hub forecast and lifting the outlook for 2017 and 2018.

As the fallout from the messy break-up of Williams Companies Inc. and Energy Transfer Equity LP continues (see Daily GPI, July 1), two other major natural gas industry mergers have been finalized.

Physical natural gas for Wednesday delivery was able to gain ground in Tuesday’s trading as weather-driven gains in the Northeast and Appalachia were able to undo broad losses seen in California, the Rockies, Gulf Coast and Texas.

For the short Thursday-Friday trading week for July delivery, physical gas saw a wide range of pricing with modest gains in the Rockies and West Texas offset by healthy double-digit gains in the Midwest and Gulf and stout double digit losses at eastern points.