NEW YORK, Jan 12, 2026, 07:02 EST — Premarket
- U.S. Natural Gas Fund (UNG) showed a roughly 4% gain in premarket trading, bouncing back after a steep fall on Friday.
- NYMEX February natural gas futures edged up early Monday as traders reevaluated U.S. temperature forecasts.
- Attention shifts to Thursday’s EIA storage report, with traders watching to see if mid-January’s cold snap impacts demand.
Shares of the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) showed gains in Monday’s premarket, following a rebound in U.S. natural gas futures. The bounce comes after a selloff late last week, driven by forecasts for warmer weather.
This shift is crucial since weather has been behind the daily swings in gas prices, with traders relying on funds like UNG to play short-term moves. Winter demand can flip fast, and the market responds just as swiftly.
The stage is set for a volatile week. A change in the mid-January temperature forecast or Thursday’s storage report could jolt the front-month contract—and ripple through gas-linked ETFs.
UNG last traded pre-market at $10.79, per Investing.com, after closing Friday at $10.40—a 7.72% drop. Volume hit about 41.1 million shares Friday, far exceeding its three-month average near 15.9 million, the data revealed.
February Henry Hub natural gas futures hovered near $3.26 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) early Monday, gaining roughly 3% on the day following a drop to a 2.5-month low last Friday.
The rebound comes after new model forecasts showed colder weather spreading over much of the country, despite forecasts for weak near-term demand lasting a few days.
“Daily weather-driven demand could hit a short-term low” before bouncing back, EBW Analytics senior analyst Eli Rubin said in a note picked up by Dow Jones Newswires. He also pointed to “increasing consensus” around a “chilly back half of January.” m.fastbull.com
Storage continues to weigh heavily. According to the EIA, working gas in underground storage was 3,256 billion cubic feet for the week ending Jan. 2, marking a 119 Bcf drop from the previous week. Inventories remained roughly 31 Bcf above the five-year average but were down 3.6% compared to the same time last year, the agency’s data revealed.
Leverage is pushing the moves further. ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas (BOIL), a 2x leveraged fund, dropped roughly 13.6% in the last session. Meanwhile, the inverse ProShares UltraShort Bloomberg Natural Gas (KOLD) climbed about 13.9%.
That said, the outlook isn’t one-sided. Should forecasts turn warmer once more, or if storage withdrawals fall short of projections, the front-month contract might slip back toward last week’s lows, dragging the ETFs down too.
