Investing.com - Natural gas futures fell on Thursday after investors locked in gains stemming from a blast of cold air shooting across the U.S. and sold the commodity for profits, as updated weather-forecasting models called for milder temperatures ahead.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in December were down 3.21% at $4.051 per million British thermal units during U.S. trading. The commodity hit a session low of $4.047, and a high of $4.175.
The December contract settled down 1.46% on Wednesday to end at $4.185 per million British thermal units.
Natural gas futures were likely to find support at $3.989 per million British thermal units, the low from Nov. 3, and resistance at $4.544, Monday's high.
Blasts of cold air trekking across the country should give way to milder temperatures in the coming days, which should curb demand for heating.
More cold air will arrive before mild weather settles in, though markets have already priced in the forecasts.
"Another impressive cold blast will impact much of the eastern U.S. early next week with widespread sub-freezing temperatures and areas of snowfall. This doesn't appear to interest the markets as they are more focused on what happens late next week and beyond, which is a transition to milder U.S. weather systems as a strong Pacific jet stream crashes into the western U.S.," Natgasweather.com reported in its Thursday midday update.
"This will prevent additional cold Canadian outbreaks from advancing into the U.S. for at least several days, and potentially longer if additional Pacific weather systems follow."
Meanwhile, investors continued to digest last week's inventory data, which showed that natural gas storage in the U.S. rose by 91 billion cubic feet, above expectations for an increase of 85 billion.
Inventories rose by 35 billion cubic feet in the same week a year earlier, while the five-year average change is a build of 42 billion cubic feet.
Injections of gas into storage have surpassed the five-year average for 29 consecutive weeks, alleviating concerns over tightening supplies.
Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 3.571 trillion cubic feet as of last week, narrowing the deficit to the five-year average to 7% from a record 54.7% at the end of March.
The Energy Information Administration's next storage report is slated for release on Friday, Nov. 14.
The data comes out one day later than usual due to the Veterans Day holiday in the U.S. on Tuesday.
Elsewhere on the NYMEX, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery in December were down 2.51% at $75.24 a barrel, while heating oil for December delivery were down 2.25% at $2.3919 per gallon.