Natural Gas prices - Dec 18

[dan_s]

Go to https://www.weatherbell.com/premium/ and watch the Saturday Summary first and then the daily update.

The national weather service now shows Chicago lows in single digits the entire week starting Christmas Day.

We are heading up to Dallas for Christmas. Very cold in Dallas (teens) on Christmas morning, but national weather service does not show any snow. They have Christmas snow across Oklahoma and Arkansas.

If you to my weekend podcast you will find a gas price chart on Slide 2. Note that two very cold weeks in the Great Lakes Region last December took natural gas prices from $2.70 to $3.70 quickly. What happens when the U.S. gets and extended period of sub-normal temperatures it that the utility companies go into the physical market and bid against each other for supply. That "bidding war" impacts the "paper market" (i.e. - NYMEX futures contracts).

Joe Bastardi at Weather Bell (link above) is saying the colder than normal weather will last from December 23 to January 10. It he is right, that should push the February NYMEX contract well over $3.00. The February contract becomes the front month (the price you see quoted daily) at the end of December.

TAX LOSS SELLING may also be coming to an end as lots of fund managers take off the last two weeks of each year.

[dan_s]

Ten Day Forecast for Chicago: https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/u ... alwx_10day