Investing.com - Natural gas futures rose on Tuesday after investors bet that a winter storm moving across the southern and eastern U.S. will hike demand for heating in the coming days.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in March traded at USD4.687 per million British thermal units during U.S. trading, up 2.36%. The commodity hit session high of USD4.746 and a low of USD4.571.
The March contract settled down 4.10% on Monday to end at USD4.579 per million British thermal units.
Natural gas futures were likely to find support at USD4.205564 per million British thermal units, Monday's low, and resistance at USD5.785, Monday's high.
The U.S. National Weather Service reported earlier that parts of the southern U.S. may get 1 to 3 inches (2.5-7.5 centimeters) of snow and sleet over the next three days.
Bullish speculators are betting that the winter storm will increase demand for the commodity at the country's thermal power plants as homes and businesses crank up their heating.
Meanwhile, U.S. supply levels also remained in focus.
Total U.S. natural gas storage fell by 262 billion cubic feet last week to 1.923 trillion cubic feet, approximately 22% below the five-year average for this time of year and nearly 29% below last year’s unusually high level.
Natural-gas inventories have fallen sharply since November as frigid winter temperatures in the U.S. led households to burn a higher than normal amount of the fuel in furnaces to heat their homes.
Early withdrawal estimates for this week’s storage data range from 225 billion cubic feet to 240 billion cubic feet. The five-year average change for the week is a decline of 162 billion cubic feet.
Elsewhere on the NYMEX, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery in March were down 0.27% and trading at USD99.89 a barrel, while heating oil for March delivery were up 0.84% and trading at USD3.0231 per gallon.