Natural Gas Market Note | 08.12.2026
NYMEX futures end the day slightly higher as the market awaits storage data.
Natural gas futures prices ended the trading session slightly higher today amid fairly quiet trading. The largest gains were seen in the two months remaining in Summer 2026, with both September and October adding more than $0.03 per MMBtu to settle at $2.804 and $2.862, respectively. Further out the curve, Summer 2027 gained $0.01 to end at $3.09, while deferred contracts were closer to flat on the day.
Market participants are awaiting tomorrow’s natural gas storage data to be released by the EIA at 10:30am Eastern, which is expected to show a build of 30 Bcf in underground storage inventories for the week ending August 7. Inventories remain at healthy levels for this time of year, but the strong refill pace seen earlier in the season has slowed a bit as more widespread heat has increased natural gas demand for power generation.
In addition to tomorrow’s storage data, the natural gas market will continue to closely monitor near-term temperature forecasts for signs of continued heat. To that point, the most recent 6-10 day outlook from the National Weather Service shows warmer-than-normal temperatures expected to blanket nearly all of the continental U.S. next week.
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