Natural Gas falls ahead of supply data

Natural gas futures dropped on Wednesday after investors priced in the effects of a late-winter blast of cold air and looked ahead to Thursday's release of weekly supply data, with talk of bearish numbers prompting a selloff.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in April traded at USD3.478 per million British thermal units, down 1.46%.

The commodity hit a session low of USD3.466 and a high of USD3.549.

A winter storm roared across the eastern U.S. on Wednesday, while forecasting models continued to predict colder weather to stick around for the central and eastern portions of the country.

A warming trend, however, will eventually follow, according to longer-range models, which was bearish for natural gas.
Investors also avoided the commodity ahead of the Thursday release of U.S. inventories.

Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 2.299 trillion cubic feet as of last week, 16% above the five-year average for this time of year.

Early withdrawal estimates for this week’s storage data range from 120 billion cubic feet to 160 billion cubic feet.

Inventories fell by 92 billion cubic feet in the same week a year earlier, while the five-year average change for the week represented a decline of 107 billion cubic feet.

Elsewhere on the NYMEX, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery in April were down 0.62% and trading at USD90.26 a barrel, while heating oil for April delivery were down 0.23% and trading at USD2.9663 per gallon.

COURTESY : INVESTING.COM