Spot natural gas prices (CFDS ON NATURAL GAS) stabilized on the rise during the recent trading at the intraday levels, to record slight daily losses until the moment of writing this report, by -0.34%, after rising sharply during trading yesterday, Wednesday, by 5.15%.
The May contract rose before midweek as traders looked for a smaller-than-usual increase in weekly US inventories, the spot month contract rose to $7.005 per million British thermal units on the day before settling on Wednesday at $6,997, up 31.7 cents in today. June futures rose 33.3 cents to $7,096.
Futures prices were strong in their recent trading with production remaining weak due to various maintenance events taking place across the US. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments recovered in the middle of the week, adding to the positive support even as weather models turn slightly warm next week.
In the meantime, sellers were waiting to increase production due to the higher price environment and an increase in the number of rigs. However, production dipped slightly in the middle of the week, according to estimates.
Instead, persistent cold weather put storage stocks down before next winter, on Thursday the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) is scheduled to release its weekly report on domestic stocks, with expectations of a drawdown.
After withdrawing 33 billion cubic feet last week, estimates on Wednesday ranged widely to go down by about 5 billion cubic feet to 29 billion cubic feet. Reuters polled 13 analysts; whose estimates resulted in an average increase in stocks of 13 billion cubic feet. A slightly tighter Bloomberg survey put construction on average at 15 billion cubic feet, while the Wall Street Journal's survey averaged 12 billion cubic feet.
This compares with an increase of 55 billion cubic feet in storage in the same week last year, and a five-year average of 33 billion cubic feet.
Technically, the price continues to rise in light of complete control of the main bullish trend in the medium term along a slope line and in the short term as well. This is supported by its continuous trading above its simple moving average for the previous 50 days, in addition to the influx of positive signals on the relative strength indicators, despite reaching overbought areas. .
Therefore, our expectations will continue to rise for natural gas during its upcoming trading, to target the important and close resistance level 7.181. The bullish scenario will continue as long as the pivotal support level 6.412 remains intact.
