Investing.com - U.S. natural gas futures fell to a two-week low on Monday, amid bearish weather forecasts that should limit demand for the fuel.
U.S. natural gas for September delivery was at $2.921 per million British thermal units by 9:15AM ET (1315GMT), down 4.1 cents, or around 1.4%. It fell to its lowest since July 10 at $2.910 earlier in the session.
Prices ended lower for the second day in a row on Friday. It saw a drop of roughly 0.4% last week.
A weather system with powerful thunderstorms and cooling will sweep across the Ohio Valley and Northeast through July 30 to ease national demand, according to updated weather forecasting models.
Natural gas prices have closely tracked weather forecasts in recent weeks, as traders try to gauge the impact of shifting outlooks on summer cooling demand.
Nearly 50% of all U.S. households use gas for cooling.
Total natural gas in storage currently stands at 2.973 trillion cubic feet, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 9.1% lower than levels at this time a year ago but 4.6% above the five-year average for this time of year.
Early market expectations for this week's storage data due on Thursday is for a build in a range between 22 and 32 billion cubic feet in the week ended July 21.
That compares with a gain of 28 billion cubic feet in the preceding week, an increase of 17 billion a year earlier and a five-year average rise of 47 billion cubic feet.