Natural Gas Hits New Record Low On Record Inventories (UNG, ANR, PCX, BTU, CNX)

Natural Gas Hits New Record Low On Record Inventories (UNG, ANR, PCX, BTU, CNX)

Natural gas futures continued to hit multi-year lows on Monday on record supplies, forecasts for milder late-week forecasts.

The front-month April gas futures contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange, which expires on Wednesday, was down 3 cents at $2.25 per million British thermal units after trading between $2.272 and $2.318.

Natural gas has been the worst commodity performer over the past one year and it has been continuously making new lows on rising inventories levels.

Natural gas was down over 2% last week and slumped over 13% so far in the current month.

After a cool start to the week, AccuWeather.com expects temperatures in the Northeast and Midwest, key gas-consuming regions, to warm to above normal by midweek, but daytime highs of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15.6 Celsius) will fall well short of the record readings seen over the last two weeks.

.S. Energy Information Administration data last week showed total gas inventories surged by 11 billion cubic feet to 2.380 trillion cubic feet, still a record high for this time, missing analysts’ estimates.

The inventory surplus, now more than 50 percent above the five-year average, should provide a huge cushion to meet any spikes in demand or storm-related disruptions in supply this year.

United States Natural Gas Fund, LP (NYSEARCA:UNG) was down 2% to $17.48 and made new low of $17.47.

Alpha Natural Resources, Inc. (NYSE:ANR) shares slumped over 2% to $15.66 after hitting 52-week low of $15.36 earlier in the session. The stock has lost over 23% so far this year.

Patriot Coal Corporation (NYSE:PCX) lost 0.60% to $6.63 and is down about 22% so far this year.

CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CNX) shares fell 0.65% to $33.55 and lost about 9% so far this year.

Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU) fell 0.10% to $30.22.