Natural gas rises as weather forecasts point to chilly U.S. temperatures

                    Natural gas prices rose on Friday after updated weather forecasts continued to call for below-normal temperatures across parts of the eastern half of the U.S. over the coming days. 

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in December traded at USD3.643 per million British thermal units during U.S. trading, up 1.05%. 

The commodity hit a session low of USD3.576 and a high of USD3.649.

The December contract settled up 1.09% at USD3.605 per million British thermal units on Thursday.

Futures were likely to find support at USD3.491 per million British thermal units, Thursday's low, and resistance at USD3.659, Wednesday's high.

A cold snap currently gripping portions of the eastern half of the U.S. will give way to warmer temperatures but only for a few days, when another blast of arctic air will coming swooping down from Canada next week.

Colder temperatures hike the need for heating this time of year, increasing demand for natural gas at the nation's thermal power generators.

Still, computers models predicted the cooler air mass won't dip as far south as previous runs indicated, which capped the commodity's gains.

Elsewhere, natgasweather.com reported that from Nov. 22-28, cooler temperatures may settle over the northern third of the U.S., with modestly cooler conditions pushing into portions of the central U.S. at times.

Elsewhere, markets continued to give weekly supply data cautious applause.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural gas storage in the U.S. in the week ended Nov. 8 rose by 20 billion cubic feet, in line with expectations for an increase of 21 billion cubic feet.

Inventories rose by 12 billion cubic feet in the same week a year earlier, while the five-year average change for the week is a build of 19 billion cubic feet.

Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 3.834 trillion cubic feet. Stocks were 80 billion cubic feet less than last year at this time and 58 billion cubic feet above the five-year average of 3.776 trillion cubic feet for this time of year.

The report showed that in the East Region, stocks were 93 billion cubic feet below the five-year average, following net injections of 10 billion cubic feet. 

Stocks in the Producing Region were 112 billion cubic feet above the five-year average of 1.185 billion cubic feet after a net injection of 12 billion cubic feet.

Elsewhere on the NYMEX, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery in December were down 0.06% and trading at USD93.70 a barrel, while heating oil for December delivery were down 0.07% and trading at USD2.9286 per gallon. - Investing.com