Natural Gas Market Note | 06.10.2026
Prices recover as the market continues rangebound trade.
Natural gas futures gained ground on Wednesday, but the market remained locked in an overall sideways trading pattern. The prompt-month July 2026 contract added 4 cents to settle near $3.19 per MMBtu. Other summer contracts followed suit, while the rest of the curve was little changed on the day. The Winter 2026–27 strip remains below month-ago levels, while the balance-of-summer strip is up modestly compared to this point in May.
With temperatures warming across the populous East in the coming days, we expect power generation demand to reach new season-to-date highs above 45 Bcf per day. Peak loads across eastern power markets are also expected to establish new high-water marks for the summer before temperatures moderate considerably during the 6–10-day period, lowering energy demand considerably.
Tomorrow’s storage report is expected to show a larger build than the previous week, according to The Wall Street Journal’s survey of analysts. Consensus forecasts center on a 100-Bcf build, with responses ranging from 90 to 116 Bcf. If the consensus estimate materializes, stocks would add 5 Bcf to the surplus versus the five-year average while expanding the deficit to year-ago levels by 10 Bcf. This would mark the seventh consecutive week in which inventory growth has lagged the comparable week in 2025.
An archive of Daily Natural Gas Market Notes can be found here.