U.S. natural gas futures ended Tuesday's session at 14-year highs , lifted partly by soaring natural gas prices in Europe that have climbed in recent days to their highest levels since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and just shy of all-time highs.
Front-month Nymex natural gas ( NG1:COM ) for September delivery settled +6.9% to $9.329/MMBtu, the best closing level since August 2008; gas was trading at ~$66/MMBtu in Europe and a record $57 in Asia.
ETFs: ( NYSEARCA: UNG ), ( UGAZF ), ( DGAZ ), ( BOIL ), ( FCG ), ( KOLD ), ( UNL )
Gas-focused equities closed with broad gains: ( CRK ) +6% , ( EQT ) +4.3% , ( AR ) +4% , ( CHK ) +3.6% , ( SWN ) +3.4% , ( CTRA ) +2.9% , ( RRC ) +2.1% .
Among other factors contributing to gains in U.S. natural gas include a heat wave in California, higher air conditioning demand than previously expected, forecasts for more hot weather, and technical and option trading.
The latest price spike "brought in a substantial amount of technical buying interest that... appeared to be accentuated by an excessive net short speculative position," Ritterbusch and Associates said, according to Reuters, also anticipating a further advance to ~$10 by next week.
The Freeport LNG export plant in Texas was consuming ~2B cf/day of gas before it was shut by a fire on June 8; Freeport expects the plant to return to at least partial service in early October .
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U.S. natural gas shoots to 14-year high as Europe prices near record highs