Investing.com - Natural gas prices edged higher on Friday as updated weather-forecasting models called for warm temperatures for a good portion of the U.S. in the coming week, which should maintain demand for air conditioning.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in October were up 0.28% at $4.056 per million British thermal units during U.S. trading. The commodity hit a session low of $4.012, and a high of $4.067.
The October contract settled up 1.02% on Thursday to end at $4.044 per million British thermal units.
Natural gas futures were likely to find support at $3.932 per million British thermal units, Wednesday's low, and resistance at $4.101, Thursday's high.
Weather-forecasting models have called for above-normal temperatures to settle over the eastern U.S., though intensity of the forecasts has fluctuated at times.
By Friday ahead of a holiday weekend in the U.S., investors edged the commodity up betting that while a strong heat wave is unlikely next week or after, neither are large early September cool snaps despite falling temperatures here and there.
"As we were expecting, weather patterns have been more favorable recently, which have eased bearish headwinds. But the end of summer is upon us, and there is nothing in the weather data that suggests there will be a last gasp of intense summer heat," Natgasweather.com reported in its Friday mid-day update.
"There will still be times where 80s to near 90F pushes into northern U.S., such as into the Midwest and Northeast, but cooler Canadian weather systems will not make It easy for any significant heat to set up for any length of time. We still expect a much more comfortable pattern to play out going into the second week of September, which will begin a string of much larger weekly builds."
On Thursday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that inventories rose 75 billion cubic feet to 2.63 trillion in the week ending Aug. 22, missing market calls for a build of 78 billion, which gave the commodity some support on Friday.
Elsewhere on the NYMEX, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery in October were up 1.30% at $95.78 a barrel, while heating oil for October delivery were up 0.37% at $2.8623 per gallon.