Investing.com - Natural gas futures edged lower on Wednesday after updated weather-forecasting models scaled back on the intensity of a U.S. cool snap, leaving investors to conclude demand for heating will be less than once anticipated.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in November were down 0.72% at $3.789 per million British thermal units during U.S. trading. The commodity hit a session low of $3.765, and a high of $3.855.
The November contract settled down 2.55% on Tuesday to end at $3.816 per million British thermal units.
Natural gas futures were likely to find support at $3.761 per million British thermal units, the low from Sept. 8, and resistance at $3.955, Tuesday's high.
A storm system bringing showers and thunderstorms across the U.S. will bring falling mercury readings in its wake, while reinforcing blasts of cooler air will follow, though temperatures won't dip as low as once thought, which allowed for profit taking on Wednesday.
"Additional weather systems will follow next week over the northern U.S., but they will again fail to provide widespread freezing temperatures over the highest heating demand states of the northern US, which we believe to be important," Natgasweather.com reported in its Wednesday midday update.
Forecasts for warm weather in the southern U.S. gave natural gas some support as demand for air conditioning will remain stable.
"The southern U.S. will be warm this weekend, including over Texas, where late season cooling demand will continue as highs reach the 80s, to locally near 90F. The West Coast will see showers as Pacific storms arrive, although they will struggle to advance very far inland," Natgasweather.com added.
Elsewhere, investors kept an eye out to Thursday's weekly U.S. storage report.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s weekly storage report slated is expected to show an increase of 98 billion cubic feet for the week ending Oct. 10.
Inventories rose by 79 billion cubic feet in the same week a year earlier, while the five-year average change is a build of 78 billion cubic feet.
Injections of gas into storage have surpassed the five-year average for 25 consecutive weeks, alleviating concerns over tightening supplies.
Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 3.205 trillion cubic feet as of last week, narrowing the deficit to the five-year average to 11% from a record 54.7% at the end of March.
Elsewhere on the NYMEX, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery in November were down 0.33% at $81.57 a barrel, while heating oil for November delivery were down 0.42% at $2.4619 per gallon.