Investing.com - Natural gas futures moved higher on Friday after updated weather-forecasting models continued to call for a blast of cold air to sweep across the U.S. later this month and drive demand for heating.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in December were up 1.45% at $4.468 per million British thermal units during U.S. trading. The commodity hit a session low of $4.285, and a high of $4.493.
The December contract settled up 5.01% on Thursday to end at $4.404 per million British thermal units.
Natural gas futures were likely to find support at $4.111 per million British thermal units, Thursday's low, and resistance at $4.493, the high from June 30.
Milder weather patterns will soon give way to more winter-like weather in the coming day, which should drive demand for heating.
"The more intimidating Arctic blast is set to arrive over the northern Plains Monday morning with temperatures dropping well below freezing. A weather system over the southern Plains will then do a fine job of tapping into these much colder temperatures and dragging them into down into northern Texas," Natgasweather.com reported in its Friday midday update.
"The Arctic blast will then gradually shift east as the low pressure system tracks toward the Ohio Valley and Northeast. The eastern U.S. will be relatively mild early next week waiting for the cold front to arrive, but once it does, it will remain through the following weekend with additional chilly weather systems lining up to follow."
Chilly weather forecasts eclipsed Thursday's lackluster data.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural gas storage in the U.S. in the week ended Oct. 31 rose by 91 billion cubic feet, above expectations for an increase of 85 billion and compared to a gain of 87 billion in the previous week.
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. Stocks were 238 billion cubic feet less than last year at this time and 261 billion cubic feet below the five-year average of 3.790 trillion cubic feet for this time of year.
Elsewhere on the NYMEX, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery in December were up 1.21% at $78.85 a barrel, while heating oil for December delivery were up 1.71% at $2.5008 per gallon.