Natural gas futures continued to slide this week despite the return of colder weather, as the market grows increasingly confident that inventories will exit winter in strong shape. While temperatures have turned cooler across much of the U.S., forecasts point to a run-of-the-mill January cold snap rather than a market-moving event, and last week’s light 71 Bcf storage withdrawal flipped inventories back into surplus versus both last year and the five-year average. With winter risk premium continuing to unwind and summer and winter-2026 contracts pushing to new lows, the path of least resistance for futures remains lower, even as spot markets could still see volatility during the remaining weeks of peak winter.
