The countdown to Christmas is on and it appears that natural gas prices are feeling the pressure to run ahead to! As per usual, the weekend weather forecasts brought quite a bit of action. For those who don’t remember, natural gas trades everyday with an open at 6PM and a close at 4:30PM, except for the weekend, i.e., No activity Saturday and Sunday (market closes at 4:30PM on Friday and opens at 6PM on Sunday). With this in mind, what’s known as a natural gas market gap often occurs, with this Sunday’s open being no exception. On the news of below average temperatures into the end of December, the market jumped upwards US$0.70/MMBtu. Overnight activity pushed the January 2023 contract to a high of $7.058, but this price failed to hold. Activity throughout the day was bearish, with a large volume of sellers at the 2:30PM settle. The contract ultimately settled up $0.342 from Friday at $6.587, and is hovering around $6.50 at the time of writing. We will continue to monitor significant weather revisions moving forwards. ~CL
