Investing.com - Natural gas futures fell on Wednesday after updated weather-forecasting models called for mild temperatures to stick around over the central and eastern U.S. in the coming days.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in September traded at $3.766 per million British thermal units during U.S. trading, down 1.53%. The commodity hit a session high of $3.829 and a low of $3.753.
The September contract settled up 1.57% on Tuesday to end at $3.824 per million British thermal units.
Natural gas futures were likely to find support at $3.725 per million British thermal units, Monday's low, and resistance at $3.857, Monday's high.
A blast of cool air shooting in from Canada has brought mild temperatures along with showers and thunderstorms across the southern U.S., likely prompting households to throttle back on their air conditioning.
"Reinforcing cool blasts will follow throughout the week and bring very comfortable temperatures and much lower than normal cooling demand to many regions through the weekend. A compact weather system will track through the southern Plains with heavy rains and cool conditions as well, including the high demand state of Oklahoma," Natgasweather.com said in its daily weather forecast on Wednesday.
"With comfortable temperatures pushing deep into Texas and the Southeast, a much larger than normal build will occur this week."
Warmer temperatures will settle in over the western, southern and eastern U.S. during the Aug. 6-12 period.
"However, the Midwest and Northeast will be vulnerable to cooler weather systems sweeping through out of southern Canada. While temperatures will be warmer over the northern U.S., they will still be slightly cooler than normal, especially over the north-central U.S. as showers and thunderstorms track through," Natgasweather.com added.
Supply remained in focus as well in early afternoon trading on Wednesday.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report on July 24 that natural gas storage in the U.S. rose by 90 billion cubic feet during the week before. The five-year average change for the week is an increase of 46 billion cubic feet.
Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 2.219 trillion cubic feet as of last week, narrowing the deficit to the five-year average to 23.5%, down from a record 54.7% at the end of March.
Injections of gas into storage have surpassed the five-year average for 14 consecutive weeks.
Analysts are expecting a build of 90 billion cubic feet for this week, again well above the five-year average for the week.
Elsewhere on the NYMEX, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery in September were down 0.19% at $100.78 a barrel, while heating oil for August delivery were down 0.29% at $2.9049 per gallon.