Investing.com - Natural gas futures came off earlier highs on Thursday after investors priced in chilly U.S. weather forecasts and a bullish supply report and sold the commodity for profits.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in January were down 1.15% at $3.660 per million British thermal units during U.S. trading. The commodity hit a session low of $3.640, and a high of $3.785.
The January contract settled up 2.29% on Wednesday to end at $3.702 per million British thermal units.
Natural gas futures were likely to find support at $3.605per million British thermal units, Tuesday's low, and resistance at $3.936, Monday's high.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural gas storage fell by 64 billion cubic feet last week, exceeding expectations for a decline of 60 billion after a drop of 51 billion in the previous week, which sent prices rising earlier.
Inventories fell by 6 billion cubic feet in the same week a year earlier, while the five-year average change is a drop of 258 billion cubic feet.
Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 3.295 trillion cubic feet.
The home heating fuel rose to session highs earlier after the latest weather forecasting models indicated that temperatures in the Midwest, Great Lakes and mid-Atlantic regions of the country would be lower than normal from Dec. 27 to Dec. 31.
Profit-taking kicked in later and sent the commodity into negative territory, especially on lingering uncertainty as to how far south late-December cold snaps will extend.
Elsewhere on the NYMEX, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery in February were down 1.46% at $55.96 a barrel, while heating oil for January delivery were down 2.05% at $1.9672 per gallon.