NEW YORK: US natural gas futures held near a two-month low on Thursday as the market waited for direction from a federal report expected to show that a decline in output earlier this month likely caused energy firms to inject less gas into storage than usual last week.
Analysts forecast energy firms added 79 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas to storage during the week ended October 16.
That compares with an increase of 86 bcf during the same week last year and a five-year (2021-2025) average increase of 87 bcf for the period.
Front-month gas futures for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell one cent to USD2.78 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), putting the contract on track for its lowest close since August 25.
That price decline also kept the front-month in technically oversold territory for a second day in a row for the first time in three months, and put it on track to drop for a fifth day in a row for the first time since April. The contract lost about 14 percent over those five days.