Investing.com - Natural gas futures rose for a second consecutive session on Wednesday as updated weather-forecasting models called for a warming trend across the eastern half of the U.S.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in September traded at $3.929 per million British thermal units during U.S. trading, up 0.81%. The commodity hit a session low of $3.878, and a high of $3.939.
The September contract settled up 1.64% on Monday to end at $3.897 per million British thermal units.
Natural gas futures were likely to find support at $3.761 per million British thermal units, Monday's low, and resistance at $4.173, the high from July 14.
Seasonably warm temperatures have pushed out a recent cool snap and are sending natural gas prices rising due to expectations that demand for the commodity will rise as households crank up their air conditioning.
Prices have been under pressure in recent weeks as unseasonably cool summer temperatures in much of the U.S. limited demand for the fuel.
"The next week's forecast is still on track with a sloppy but warmer U.S. pattern playing out into next week," Natgasweather.com reported in its mid-day update on Wednesday.
Prices didn't skyrocket due to the possibility of cooler air dipping in out of Canada into the U.S. anew in the coming days.
"The models continue to struggle on how a couple of cool blasts unfold around August 15th and again around the 19th. The latest data is still not sure just how far the Aug 15th cool blast will push into the north-central U.S. late next week," Natgasweather.com added.
Supply data due out this week remained in focus as well.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s weekly storage report slated for release on Thursday is expected to show an increase of 89 billion cubic feet in the week ending August 1.
Inventories rose by 90 billion cubic feet in the same week a year earlier, while the five-year average change is a build of 49 billion cubic feet.
Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 2.307 trillion cubic feet as of last week, narrowing the deficit to the five-year average to 21.7% from 23.5% a week earlier and down from a record 54.7% at the end of March.
Injections of gas into storage have surpassed the five-year average for 15 consecutive weeks, alleviating concerns over tightening supplies.
Elsewhere on the NYMEX, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery in September were down 0.55% at $96.84 a barrel, while heating oil for September delivery were up 1.00% at $2.8754 per gallon.