2014.03.1205:47:29UTC+00Natural gas drops, weather trims fuel usage

The natural gas futures dipped in New York as the moderate weather cuts down demand for the heating fuel.

Gas slipped 1% as Commodity Weather Group, LLC postulated seasonal readings throughout most of the lower 48 states from March 21 to March 25 following below normal temperatures in the East next week. At the end of February, waves of arctic air pushed fuel inventories to the lowest point for the month in 10 years, government data reported.

Natural gas for April delivery dropped 4.6 cents to set at $4.605 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Volume for all futures listed was 42% below the 100-day average at 3:28 p.m. The futures went up 8.9% this year.

April gas settled 6.1 cents above the May contract, from 7.5 cents yesterday. The premium for April to October futures contracted to 3.8 cents at 2:45 p.m., previously 4.9 cents. April $4.50 puts were the most active options in electronic trading. They increased 0.3 cent at 7.7 cents per million Btu on volume of 629 contracts at 3:30 p.m. Puts counted for 49% of trading volume.

Price volatility fell this month as the peak US heating demand months finished. The glide from today’s high and low prices was 11.1 cents, the lowest since January 14. The average intraday range so far this year is 18.1 cents after it broadened to 42.9 cents in February.