“Natural gas prices have closely tracked weather forecasts in recent weeks, as traders try to gauge the impact of shifting forecasts on winter heating demand,” Investing.com reported. “The heating season from November through March is the peak demand period for U.S. gas consumption. Nearly 50% of all U.S. households use gas for heating. Still-high inventory-levels also weighed on prices.”
Traders have been selling natural-gas futures on the expectation that “the coldest part of winter is behind us,” said Tom Saal, a broker at INTL Hencorp Futures, in a Dow Jones Newswires report. “Historically, this is the time of season where you have the coldest weather.”
Leveraged natural gas ETFs also fell sharply on Monday. VelocityShares 3x Long Natural Gas ETN (NYSEArca: UGAZ) declined 12%, ProShares Ultra DJ-UBS Natural Gas (NYSEArca: BOIL) slipped 8% and Direxion Daily Natural Gas Related Bull 3x Shares (NYSEArca: GASL) fell about 6%.
U.S. Natural Gas Fund
