US natural gas futures inched higher in quiet trade on Wednesday, rebounding slightly after two sessions of losses, as traders paused ahead of a weekly stockpile report on Thursday. Natural gas prices fell toward the bottom of a recent trading range on Monday and Tuesday, as the weather outlook turned milder and traders began to anticipate the end of the air conditioning season when gas demand typically drops off.
But the market took stock on Wednesday ahead of a weekly inventory report that was expected to show a smaller build in gas stockpiles than last year and the year before.
Front-month gas futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed 1.2 cents higher at $2.716 per million British thermal units, still near the lower of end of the trading range of $2.60 to $3 seen over the last two months.
"$2.70 is strong support and it will likely take another strong injection (of gas into storage) for the market to break through that level," said Aaron Calder, senior analyst at Gelber and Associates in Houston.
A poll of 20 analysts estimated that utilities put 58 billion cubic feet of gas into storage during the week ended August 14. The estimates, made ahead of Thursday's weekly stockpile report from the US Energy Information Administration, ranged from 44 bcf to 68 bcf.
That is lower than the builds of 65 bcf in the previous week and 86 bcf a year earlier but above the five-year average increase of 54 bcf.
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