The NYMEX May natural gas futures contract remained steady Monday morning amid largely unchanged, unsupportive fundamentals to trade at $2.097/MMBtu, up 0.8 cents from Thursday's settlement, as of 10:47 am EST (1447 GMT).
IAF Advisors analyst Kyle Cooper said record-high storage stocks, mild weather and rampant production continue to keep the price down, but said there may need to be a further shift in fundamentals for the price to drop much more.
"The market's well aware of all the bearish fundamental factors and the price reflects that," Cooper said. "The question is: 'How many more bearish factors do we need to see in order for the contract to go lower?'"
Citi Futures Perspective analyst Tim Evans said updated weather forecasts may help "re-balance" the market over the next few weeks, but said a record storage surplus will likely keep prices down.
Tom Saal, a senior vice president of energy trading with Hencorp Becstone Futures, said the market has not seen much of a shift, other than a move from withdrawals from storage to injections. The move to injection season has not provided much support, Saal said.
Saal put support at $2.05/MMBtu and resistance at $2.12/MMBtu. The contract has been trading Monday between $2.061/MMBtu and $2.109/MMBtu.
