NEW YORK: US natural gas futures eased on Thursday, hurt by rising output and forecasts for less cold weather over the coming weeks, as the market awaited the release of a federal weekly storage report.

Front-month gas futures for January delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 8.8 cents, or 2.6%, to $3.29 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) as of 8:07 a.m. EST (1307 GMT).

“Despite some additional cold being added to the forecast for the eastern US later in the month, some of the chill was taken out of the nearer term outlooks for the Midwest, giving us a slightly bearish adjustment, that is giving the bulls a reason to do some profit taking,” said Gary Cunningham, director of market research at Tradition Energy.

Meteorologists projected the weather in the Lower 48 states would remain mostly warmer than normal through Dec. 26.

Financial firm LSEG estimated 374 total degree days (TDDs) over the next two weeks, higher than Wednesday’s 368 TDDs.