Natural Gas ETFs Bring the Heat
This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com.
Natural gas prices and related ETFs climbed Wednesday as traders jumped on the the latest weather projections of a potentially colder-than-expected winter ahead.
The United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) gained 17.9% Wednesday as Nymex natural gas futures were 16.6% higher to $4.78 per million British thermal units.
Additionally, for the more aggressive traders, the three-times leveraged-long VelocityShares 3x Long Natural Gas ETN (UGAZ) surged 56.2% Wednesday while the ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas (BOIL) , which takes the two times or 200% daily performance of natural gas, advanced 35.1%.
Natural gas futures for December delivery jumped as much as 20% in volatile trading Wednesday as traders anticipated increased heating demand in face of a colder winter and dwindling supply, which is at a 15-year low for this time of the year, CNBC reports.
"Overnight, there was another round of cold trends, and that kind of lit the fuse and everything exploded," Jacob Meisel, chief weather analyst at Bespoke Weather Services, told CNBC. "Some of the later overnight weather models trended much colder...the six to 10 and 11 to 15 day [forecasts] both saw rather significant cold trends. It wasn't like we were looking at periods of very major sustained warming. We've just been continually trending colder and colder."
Projected natural prices
Meisel projected natural prices could continue to push toward $7 to $8 per mmBtus if weather conditions worsen.
"This looks like a capitulation move today, but if cold weather really takes off, the skies the limit," Meisel added.
On the supply side, Government data last week revealed the amount of natural gas in U.S. storage facilities rose by 65 billion cubic feet to 3.208 trillion cubic feet, or what is 15% below the year-over-year level and 16% below the five-year average. The storage numbers were also the lowest amount for the first week of November since 2003.
"It looks like more of a short squeeze than anything else. There's more cold weather on the horizon. A couple of the weather forecasts strengthened," John Kilduff, partner with Again Capital, told CNBC. "Any kind of cold weather blast early season like this is going to cause anxiety and concerns about really tight supply as we get deeper into the winter."
For more information on the natgas market, visit our natural gas category.
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