Investing.com - Natural gas prices shot up on Tuesday after a shot of cold air moving from the central to the eastern U.S. sparked fueled expectation for heating demand to spike, though profit taking quickly ended the buying spree.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in May traded at $4.555 per million British thermal units during U.S. trading, down 0.11%. The commodity hit session high of $4.633 and a low of $4.513.
The May contract settled down 1.30% on Monday to end at $4.560 per million British thermal units.
Natural gas futures were likely to find support at $4.222 per million British thermal units, the low from April 2, and resistance at $4.702, Thursday's high.
A plume of cold air moving across the central and eastern U.S. sent natural gas prices rising on Tuesday, though profit-taking wiped out gains, as the cool snap should be short lived, though trading was choppy at times.
Updated weather-forecasting models called for seasonably mild temperatures to hover over much of the lower 48 contiguous U.S. states towards the end of April.
Spring and fall see the weakest demand for natural gas in the U.S, as the absence of extreme temperatures curbs demand for heating and air conditioning.
Supplies remained in focus as well.
Last week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural gas storage in the U.S. in the week ending April 4 rose by 4 billion cubic feet after a drop of 74 billion cubic feet in the previous week.
Analysts had expected a build of 13 billion cubic feet, and the lower-than-expected figure sparked a rally.
Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 826 billion cubic feet, the lowest for this time of year since 2003.
Severely cold weather over this past winter saw natural gas stockpiles fall to 11-year lows, sparking concerns that producers may not be able to refill inventories before the next heating season. Producers typically replenish inventories between April and October, when demand is lower.
Elsewhere on the NYMEX, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery in May were down 0.27% and trading at $103.77 a barrel, while heating oil for May delivery were up 0.22% and trading at $2.9856 per gallon.