Cold End Of March Keeps Gas Afloat
It was a mixed day for natural gas futures, as colder weather forecasts helped the April gas contract settle a bit less than a percent higher on the day despite looser fundamental data.
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The April contract was clearly the strongest on the day, with other contracts lagging behind on looser demand data.
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The result was the first positive settle of the April/May J/K spread in quite some time.
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The April/October J/V spread eclipsed the recent highs set last week as well.
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Much of the support at the front of the curve came from bullish overnight weather trends.
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Yet out sentiment was slightly bearish on the day due to bearish fundamentals besides weather that had us see intraday price downside. This worked out well until mid-day weather model guidance (particularly the GFS ensembles) progressed in an even colder direction (images courtesy of Tropical Tidbits).
Climate Prediction Center forecasts this afternoon accordingly eliminated the bulk of what seemed like high probability warm risks yesterday.
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Wow, a reason to be happy for the cold!