Investing.com - U.S. natural gas futures edged higher during U.S. morning trade on Monday, as market players monitored near-term weather forecasts to gauge the strength of demand for the fuel.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas for delivery in November traded at $3.881 per million British thermal units during U.S. morning hours, up 2.2 cents, or 0.57%.
Futures were likely to find support at $3.815 per million British thermal units, the low from October 9, and resistance at $3.941, the high from October 9.
There will be no floor trading on the Nymex on Monday because of the Columbus Day holiday in the U.S. All electronic transactions will be booked with Tuesday's trades for settlement.
Updated weather-forecasting models continued to call for pockets of cool air to trek across the U.S. in the coming days, though temperatures still won't fall too hard to seriously drive demand for heating while staying mild enough to curb the need for air conditioning.
Cooler air systems will see reinforcements, though the intensity of these blasts of falling mercury reading remains up in the air.
The heating season from November through March is the peak demand period for U.S. gas consumption.
Meanwhile, investors continued to digest Thursday's weekly inventory data, which showed that natural gas storage in the U.S. rose by 105 billion cubic feet last week.
Inventories rose by 91 billion cubic feet in the same week a year earlier, while the five-year average change is a build of 84 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, crude oil for delivery in November sank $1.26, or 1.47%, to trade at $84.56 a barrel, while heating oil for November delivery dipped 0.72% to trade at $2.541 per gallon.