NEW YORK: US natural gas futures dropped to a near one-week low in holiday-thinned trade on Monday on forecasts of less cold weather starting late January, even as spot rates climbed as frigid cold conditions for most of the US boosted demand for heating.

Front-month gas futures for February delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 15.2 cents, or 3.8%, to $3.80 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT), its lowest since Jan. 14. Trading volumes are low due to US markets being closed for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday and ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration later in the day.

“Spot prices kind of went crazy responding to extremely cold weather over the weekend and the next several days,” said Zhen Zhu, managing consultant at C.H. Guernsey and Company in Oklahoma City.