Trend toward higher natural gas prices stays on track

Trend toward higher natural gas prices stays on track

Yesterday, August 11, U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exported Freeport LNG said it was still pulling in small amounts of natural gas from pipelines at its shuttered LNG export plant in Texas to fuel a power plant. And, this is the important part, it still expects the liquefaction plant, which shut due to a fire on June 8, to return to at least partial service in early October. Thursday, U.S. gas futures jumped about 8% on talk of increased gas flows to the Freeport LNG plant, a drop in gas output, and forecasts for more demand for the fuel over the next two weeks than previously expected. The U.S. Natural Gas Fund (UNG) gained 6.06%.

Natural gas, corn, and wheat lead commodities higher today

Remember, natural gas isn’t just for heating; air conditioning demand sends natural gas for August delivery up 10.2% today

There are the base-load power plants that run all the time and meet the bulk of normal electricity demand. And then there are the power plants that are only intermittently called into service when demand spikes. In the United States the majority of the plants used to meet “spiking” demand run on natural gas. So you can imagine what something like the current heat wave now gripping much of the country does to electricity demand for air conditioning and to demand for natural gas.

Please watch my new YouTube video: Quick Pick U.S. Natural Gas–update

Please watch my new YouTube video: Quick Pick U.S. Natural Gas–update

My one-hundred-and-forty-sixth YouTube video “Quick Pick U.S. Natural Gas Fund–update” went up today. The fire at the Freeport Liquified Natural Gas facility has disrupted U.S exports of natural gas. That’s resulted in a short-term glut in U.S. markets and what I think is a short-term buying opportunity for long-term gains in natural gas and this fund. Especially with winter and its surge in natural gas use just a few months away.

It’s a war of two narratives–today “recession” narrative replaces “rate cut” narrative and stocks fall heavily

It’s a war of two narratives–today “recession” narrative replaces “rate cut” narrative and stocks fall heavily

Yesterday, the stock market was up with the Standard & Poor’s 500 gaining 1.46% on the day and the NASDAQ Composite up 2.49%. Listening to the Federal Reserve’s policy statement after the June 15 meeting of its Open Market Committee, Wall Street chose to hear a promise of interest rate cuts as early as the end of 2023 and certainly in 2023. Aggressive interest rate increases in 2022, from this perspective, are just a necessary precondition to those interest rate cuts. Today, the stock market is down with the Standard & Poor’s 500 falling 3.25% and the NASDAQ Composite off 4.08% at the close. The narrative on investors’ and traders’ minds today is the rising odds of a recession–75% odds in favor by 2024 a Bloomberg survey of economists says with 25% odds of a recession in 2023. For a day that trumps the hopes for 2024 interest rate cuts (which would, after all, only materialize if the economy has, indeed, tumbled into recession. I expect this “War of the Two Narratives” to continue for a while

Please watch my new YouTube video: Quick Pick U.S. Natural Gas Fund

Please watch my new YouTube video: Quick Pick U.S. Natural Gas Fund

My one-hundredth-and-thirty-first YouTube video “Quick Pick: U.S. Natural Gas Fund” went up today. Natural gas hit an 18-year high in the United States on Thursday, May, even as oil was sliding. Consequently I’m looking for a pick that focuses on natural gas and not oil: my pick this week is United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG). I’ll use today’s drop in the price of natural gas and the 8.04% decline in UNG to add this pick to my Volatility Portfolio on Monday. I think that we’re going to see even higher gas prices as the war in Ukraine (and sanctions against Russia) grind on and as everyone rushes to build stock piles ahead of the inter heating season.

Natural gas has its best week of 2016–short covering on forecast of a hot summer?

Natural gas futures for May delivery rose 3.5% on Friday to give the commodity a 13% gain for the week. That’s the best performance for natural gas since the week that ended on January 1. At this point and with so much short covering, I’d be very cautious about chasing prices here. This rally is, though, part of a recovery in the sector and I’ve got suggestions for what stocks to watch