Natural Gas Fundamental Analysis Jan. 31, 2012, Forecast

By FX Empire.com

Economic Events: (GMT)

WEEKLY

• This Week in Petroleum
  Release Schedule: Wednesday @ 1:00 p.m. EST (schedule)
• Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update
  Release Schedule: Monday between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. EST (schedule)
• Weekly Petroleum Status Report
  Release Schedule: The wpsrsummary.pdf, overview.pdf, and Tables 1-14 in CSV and XLS formats, are released to the Web site after 10:30 a.m. (Eastern Time) on Wednesday. All other PDF and HTML files are released to the Web site after 1:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) on Wednesday. Appendix D is produced during the winter heating season, which extends from October through March of each year. For some weeks which include holidays, releases are delayed by one day. (schedule)
• Heating Oil & Propane Update (October-March)
  Heating Oil, Propane Residential and Wholesale Price Data
  Release Schedule: Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. EST
• Weekly Coal Production
  Release Schedule: Thursday by 5:00 p.m. EST
• Weekly NYMEX Coal Futures
  Release Schedule: Monday by 5:00 p.m. EST
• Coal News & Markets
  Release Schedule: Monday by 5:00 p.m. EST
• Natural Gas Weekly Update
  Release Schedule: Thursday between 2:00 and 2:30 p.m. (Eastern Time)
• Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report
  Release Schedule: Thursday at 10:30 (Eastern Time) (schedule)

Analysis and Recommendations:

Natural Gas is currently down at 2.737 after hitting a high of 2.842. Today is a simple case of profit taking as NG has cascaded up for a week, moving from 2.32 to 2.84.

Prices rose in early trading and have maintained their current level industry weather group MDA EarthSat said Friday that it expected colder-than-normal weather throughout most of the U.S. east coast and southern states in the next 11-to-15 days.

Natural-gas prices have closely tracked weather forecasts in recent weeks. Colder-than-normal winter temperatures increase the need for gas-fired electricity to heat homes, bolstering demand for natural gas.

This is typically the coldest time in winter, but temperatures in the U.S. have yet to reach levels cold enough to boost demand for the heating fuel, keeping prices depressed at unseasonably low levels.

Originally posted here