Natural gas futures jump to 1-week high on cool weather forecasts

On Tuesday U.S. natural gas futures jumped to a one-week high, due to forecasts showing colder-than-normal temperatures boosted near-term heating demand expectations for the fuel.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas for delivery in October climbed 2.3%, or 8.9 cents, to trade at $3.965 per million British thermal units during U.S. morning hours. Natural gas futures rallied to a session high of $3.969 earlier, the most since September 2.

A day earlier, prices soared 2.19%, or 8.3 cents, to settle at $3.876. Futures were likely to find support at $3.761 per million British thermal units, the low from September 8 and resistance at around the $4.000-level.

Updated weather forecasting models pointed to cooler-than-normal temperatures in some Northern Tier states along the Canadian border over the next two weeks. Bullish speculators are betting that colder weather will increase demand for the heating fuel.

Elsewhere on the Nymex, crude oil for delivery in October tacked on 0.93%, or 86 cents, to trade at $93.52 a barrel, while heating oil for October delivery shed 0.04% to trade at $2.808 per gallon.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report on September 4 that natural gas storage in the U.S. rose by 79 billion cubic feet last week, compared to expectations for an increase of 73 billion cubic feet.

The five-year average change for the week is a build of 56 billion cubic feet.

Injections of gas into storage have surpassed the five-year average for 20 consecutive weeks, alleviating concerns over tightening supplies.

Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 2.709 trillion cubic feet as of last week, narrowing the deficit to the five-year average to 15.4% from 17% a week earlier and down from a record 54.7% at the end of March.

The EIA's next storage report is expected for release on Thursday, with analysts anticipating a build of 79 billion cubic feet for the week ending September 5. Inventories rose by 64 billion cubic feet in the same week a year earlier, while the five-year average change is a build of 60 billion cubic feet.