Investing.com - Natural gas prices fell on Wednesday after investors locked in gains from bullish weather reports and sold for profits, jumping to the sidelines to await Thursday's weekly supply report.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in October were down 0.51% at $3.964 per million British thermal units during U.S. trading. The commodity hit a session low of $3.940, and a high of $3.993.
The October contract settled up 2.79% on Tuesday to end at $3.984 per million British thermal units.
Natural gas futures were likely to find support at $3.761 per million British thermal units, Monday's low, and resistance at $4.016, Tuesday's high.
Natural gas prices shot up in by more than 2% in the last two sessions on weather forecasts calling for a cool snap, which could prompt households in the northern U.S. to crank up their heating.
By Wednesday, investors sold the commodity for profits and jumped to the sidelines to await Thursday's weekly supply report, which is expected to show an increase of 79 billion cubic feet for the week ending Sept. 5.
Inventories rose by 64 billion cubic feet in the same week a year earlier, while the five-year average change is a build of 60 billion cubic feet.
Injections of gas into storage have surpassed the five-year average for 20 consecutive weeks, alleviating concerns over tightening supplies.
Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 2.709 trillion cubic feet as of last week, narrowing the deficit to the five-year average to 15.4% from 17% a week earlier and down from a record 54.7% at the end of March.
Still, updated weather forecasting models continued to call for below-normal temperatures in northern U.S. states along the Canadian border over the next two weeks, which cushioned losses.
Elsewhere on the NYMEX, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery in October were down 1.12% at $91.71 a barrel, while heating oil for October delivery were down 1.35% at $2.7538 per gallon.