Investing.com - Natural gas prices edged lower on Thursday after weather-forecasting models called for seasonably mild temperatures to hold across much of the U.S., which should curb demand for both air conditioning and heating.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in November were down 0.56% at $3.834 per million British thermal units during U.S. trading. The commodity hit a session low of $3.816, and a high of $3.940.
The November contract settled down 2.58% on Wednesday to end at $3.855 per million British thermal units.
Natural gas futures were likely to find support at $3.786 per million British thermal units, the low from Sept. 12, and resistance at $4.184, the high from Oct. 1.
Pockets of cool air are due to trek across the U.S. in the coming days though temperatures won't fall too hard to seriously drive demand for heating while staying mild enough to curb the need for air conditioning.
"The issue continues to be these weather systems and associated cool blasts will fail to tap enough northern Canadian air to bring widespread freezing temperatures, which we think is important. This active pattern should continue through late October, but we still don't see cold enough weather systems to threaten the nat gas markets with much stronger than normal heating demand," Natgasweather.com reported in its Thursday midday update.
"If colder weather patterns don't show up soon, supplies will be able to make up additional ground on deficits before the draw season begins."
Elsewhere, the Energy Information Agency reported earlier that stockpiles rose by 105 billion cubic feet last week, slightly below market calls for a build of 108 billion cubic feet, which gave the commodity some support.
Elsewhere on the NYMEX, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery in November were down 1.74% at $85.79 a barrel, while heating oil for November delivery were down 1.53% at $2.5366 per gallon.