Nat gas
By Naureen S. Malik - Nov 21, 2012 4:18 PM ET
Natural gas futures advanced to the highest price in in more than a year after a government report showed a bigger-than-forecast inventory decline.
Gas gained 1.9 percent after the Energy Department said U.S. stockpiles fell 38 billion cubic feet last week to 3.873 trillion. Analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg showed a decrease of 28 billion and a survey of Bloomberg users predicted a drop of 30 billion.
“That’s a big number; 38 bcf is a game changer,” said Stephen Schork, president of Schork Group Inc., a consulting group in Villanova, Pennsylvania. “That is stronger than weather patterns would have suggested. If you’re of the mindset that demand wasn’t driving this, rather this was a supply issue and a function of producers cutting back, then this is going to be structurally helpful.”
Gas for December delivery rose 7.1 cents to $3.903 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest settlement price since Oct. 31, 2011. The futures are up 15 percent from a year ago.
An assault on $4 gas prices is “imminent” amid rising seasonal demand and persistently high nuclear outages, Mike Fitzpatrick, editor of the Energy OverView newsletter in New York, wrote today.
December $4 calls were the most active options in electronic trading. They rose 0.7 cent to 3.1 cents on volume of 1,208 lots at 4 p.m. Calls accounted for 57 percent of the volume today.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-21/natural-gas-declines-from-one-year-high-before-inventory-report.html