Natural gas spikes as a blizzard bears down on the Northeast

pulse

March 13, 2017 7:27 PM

Natural gas prices are making a comeback.

A resident shovels snow away from the entrance to his home in Union City, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from Midtown Manhattan, after the second-biggest winter storm in New York history.

After a rough start to the year and a brutal 2016, natural gas prices are making a comeback. Since hitting a low around $2.65 per million Btu in late February, gas has rebounded to $3.04.

The jump has been attributed to more usage than expected and revised weather predictions. Although much of the United States enjoyed a much warmer than usual end of February, a massive blizzard is projected to strike the East Coast Monday night and Tuesday morning.

Some commenters, like former trader Andrew Hecht, warn that the fundamentals behind natural gas prices still do not merit the current prices. Inventories are still huge despite greater than expected use. The American natural gas industry has grown at a stunning pace in recent years, which led to prices steadily falling all the way down to $2.30 in 2016.

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