U.S. natural gas futures surged more than 10% to a five-week high on Wednesday, as hot weather blankets much of the U.S. with forecasts for more during the next two weeks, which likely would boost demand for the fuel.
Front-month Nymex natural gas ( NG1:COM ) for August delivery closed +10.2% to $8.007/MMBtu, its highest settlement since June 13 and up more than 47% so far this month.
ETFs: ( NYSEARCA: UNG ), ( UGAZF ), ( DGAZ ), ( BOIL ), ( FCG ), ( KOLD ), ( UNL )
Among gas-focused equities: ( EQT ) +4.5% , ( RRC ) +6.7% , ( SWN ) +5% , ( AR ) +4.8% , ( CHK ) +3.1% , ( CTRA ) +2.5% , ( CRK ) +4.6% , ( LNG ) +3.5% , ( TELL ) +5.5% .
The brutal U.S. heat wave already has raised power demand to record highs in several parts of the country;
Prices rose despite a decline in feed gas to liquefied natural gas export plants due to upsets some facilities in Louisiana and the ongoing outage at the Freeport LNG plant in Texas, which leaves more fuel in the U.S.
In Europe, The European Union proposed that member states cut gas usage by 15% until March as part of an emergency plan .
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U.S. natural gas gains 10% to $8/MMBtu as heatwave batters U.S.