Investing.com - U.S. natural gas futures rose to a two-week high on Wednesday, as investors monitored near-term weather forecasts to gauge the strength of demand for the fuel ahead of Thursday’s closely-watched supply report.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas for delivery in October tacked on 1.5 cents, or 0.39%, to trade at $4.010 per million British thermal units during U.S. morning hours.
Prices hit a daily high of $4.040 per million British thermal units, the strongest level since September 2.
Futures were likely to find support at $3.839, the low from September 15 and resistance at $4.078, the high from September 2.
A day earlier, natural gas futures climbed 6.4 cents, or 1.63%, to end at $3.995 as cooler U.S. weather may spur demand for the heating fuel.
U.S. Great Lakes and northeastern states will see pockets of cooler air over the next week, which drive demand for heating, while warm temperatures over the southern U.S. will prompt households to crank up their air conditioning, forecasts that bolstered the commodity.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s weekly storage report slated for release on Thursday is expected to show an increase of 93 billion cubic feet for the week ending September 12.
Inventories rose by 48 billion cubic feet in the same week a year earlier, while the five-year average change is a build of 71 billion cubic feet.
Injections of gas into storage have surpassed the five-year average for 21 consecutive weeks, alleviating concerns over tightening supplies.
Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 2.801 trillion cubic feet as of last week, narrowing the deficit to the five-year average to 14.2% from 15.4% a week earlier and down from a record 54.7% at the end of March.
Elsewhere on the Nymex, crude oil for delivery in November tacked on 1 cents, or 0.01%, to trade at $93.82 a barrel, while heating oil for October delivery inched up 0.16% to trade at $2.760 per gallon.