Forecasts of more seasonable weather during winter in the U.S. helped push down natural gas futures on Wednesday, Bloomberg reports.
With warmer weather expected as soon as Thursday on the East Coast and in the Central region of the U.S., demand for heating oil slackened. Thus far this year, prices for the commodity have decreased 11 percent amidst conjecture that high production of the heating fuel will work against larger than average declines of the commodity that cold weather typically causes.
"We went from record low temperatures to above-average temperatures in most of the country," Phil Flynn, vice president of research at PFGBest in Chicago, told the news service. "This market's like a limbo stick right now. Everyone's wondering how low we can go."
Natural gas futures closed Wednesday down 1.38 percent, a 0.055 cent dip to $3.921 per British thermal unit.
The U.S. Energy Department states about 52 percent of households in the U.S. are reliant on natural gas for heating purposes.
"We now see front-month futures dropping below $3.40 a million British thermal units in coming weeks and see downside risks to our second-quarter average price forecast of $4.30," according to a Wednesday Bank of America-Merrill Lynch report.
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