Investing.com - Natural gas futures carried Tuesday's gains into Wednesday on forecasts for hot, summertime temperatures to arrive in the U.S. next week, which should prompt homes and businesses to crank up their air conditioning.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in July traded at $4.587 per million British thermal units during U.S. trading, up 1.68%. The commodity hit a session high of $4.599 and a low of $4.489.
The July contract settled up 1.41% on Tuesday to end at $4.405 per million British thermal units.
Natural gas futures were likely to find support at $4.364 per million British thermal units, Tuesday's low, and resistance at $4.578 Wednesday's high.
Mild, springtime temperatures should give way to warmer summertime weather patterns in the coming days and prompt thermal power producers to burn more natural gas to meet demand for air conditioning, which sent natural gas prices rising.
Elsewhere, markets looked ahead to Thursday's weekly supply report.
Meanwhile, market players assessed the outlook for U.S. supply levels. Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 1.266 trillion cubic feet as of last week, nearly 40% below their level this time last year and 45% below the five-year average.
Early injection estimates for this Thursday’s storage data range from 104 billion cubic feet to 109 billion cubic feet. Inventories rose by 88 billion cubic feet in the same week a year earlier, while the five-year average change for the week is a build of 93 billion cubic feet.
Producers would need to add approximately 2.5 trillion cubic feet to storage by November 1 to meet typical winter demand, according to analysts.
Elsewhere on the NYMEX, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery in July were down 0.39% at $103.70 a barrel, while heating oil for July delivery were down 0.54% at $2.9236 per gallon.