Thursday, April 24, 2014

Midday Trading -- For Investors Only; Weekly Natural Gas Numbers

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on what you read here or what you think you may have read here.

Trading at new 52-week highs today: CAT, EOG, JOY, OKE, PSX, SYRG, WIN.

EOG has since dropped back, probably profit taking. Certainly oil and gas fundamentals have not changed. The price of oil crept up today and the weekly report for natural gas storage suggests continued price support for NG (some numbers rounded):
  • Total one week ago: 850 bcf
  • Total today: 900 bcf
  • One year ago: 1,700 bcf
  • % change from one year ago: -50%
  • 5-year average: 1,900 bcf
  • % change from historic average: -50%
Natural gas storage is almost 50% less than what it was last year at this time, and it is more than 50% less than the historic average (2009 - 2013).

The "implied flow" (new storage this week) was 50 bcf.

Bloomberg is reporting:
Speculators’ decision to raise bullish bets on U.S. natural gas was rewarded with a rally to the highest price since February.
Their net-long position across four natural-gas contracts rose 1.9 percent in the seven days ended April 15. Two days later, prices advanced the most in two months after a government report showed a second week of below-average U.S. stockpile gains, bolstering concern about tightening supply.

Inventories are 54 percent below the five-year average, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said April 17. Another year of record production will be needed to cut the shortfall by the end of October, when stockpiles may be at the lowest pre-winter level since 2008, according to EIA projections. Frigid weather since November helped send supplies last month to the lowest in 11 years.
What's with the "speculators"? Someone has to buy, someone has to sell, they are all traders or investors, but I don't think this rises to the definition of "speculation."

2 comments:

  1. the True Definition of a speculator , is a person who buys 2 cans of soup at one time when they really only need one. The other can is placed in storage for a further event horizon.
    So remember the next time you go on a road trip buying More then 1 gallon of gas at a time Maybe considered speculation. don

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's about the truth, as we used to say in North Dakota.

      Delete

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