Appearing to find some support at current discounted levels, natural gas futures advanced modestly in early trading Friday, though a mild December weather outlook remained hardly inspiring for bulls.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

The January Nymex contract was up 3.6 cents to $2.428/MMBtu at around 8:30 a.m. ET, building on a 5.7-cent rally in the previous session.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday reported an on-target 55 Bcf withdrawal from domestic storage for the week ended Dec. 8. The pull left Lower 48 stocks at 3,664 Bcf, or 260 Bcf higher than the five-year average, versus plus-243 Bcf in the week-earlier period, EIA data show.

“We estimate the week of the print was 2 Bcf/d oversupplied on a weather-adjusted basis,” analysts at Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH) said...