NEW YORK: US natural gas futures jumped about 6% to a one-week high on Monday in what has already been an extremely volatile month on forecasts for colder weather and higher heating demand through the end of November than previously expected.
Traders also noted the market remained hyper focused on unproven rumors that the Freeport liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Texas may not return to service until December. Freeport LNG has said repeatedly said the plant, which shut after an explosion on June 8, would return in November.
On Friday, the market dropped more than 5% due in part to what Freeport LNG called fake Tweets about cracked pipes at the plant.
“Any Tweets and/or posts on Freeport LNG branded letterhead that may have been obtained or published, are reporting false information and are not legitimate, official public information from Freeport LNG,” Freeport said on Friday.
Front-month gas futures rose 36.8 cents, or 6.3%, to $6.247 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) by 8:38 a.m. EST (1338 GMT), putting the contract on track for its highest close since Nov. 7. Rapid price changes over the past couple of weeks - futures gained or lost more than 5% on eight of the past 10 days - boosted the contract’s 30-day implied volatility index to its highest level since hitting a record in October 2021 for a fourth day in a row. The market uses implied volatility to estimate likely price changes in the future.
With a rise in gas prices last week, speculators cut their net short futures and options positions on the New York Mercantile and Intercontinental Exchanges for the first time in three weeks to their lowest since September, according to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Commitments of Traders report.
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