New York, Jan 6, 2026, 10:30 EST — Regular session
Shares of the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) fell 4.5% to $11.11 on Tuesday as U.S. natural gas futures slid in morning trade. The benchmark Henry Hub contract for February was down about 2.7% at $3.429 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), a standard gas-trading energy unit.
The selloff matters because winter heating demand can swing U.S. gas prices quickly, and forecasters are now calling for an unusually warm stretch across large parts of the country. Record highs were forecast in swaths of the central and eastern United States, with temperatures running well above normal into the weekend.
The market was coming off a sharp Monday drop after weekend forecast updates trimmed expected cold later in the month, dragging the front-month contract lower. “This market is dropping into fresh new low territory,” consultancy Ritterbusch & Associates wrote, warning the downside “extends to the $3.00 area” if weather support fails to materialize. JPMorgan said in a separate note that “our positive thesis will remain intact for 2026” on rising LNG feedgas demand — gas delivered to liquefied natural gas export plants — even as it flagged potential headwinds later on. Hellenic Shipping News
UNG is a futures-based exchange-traded fund that aims for its daily net asset value to track daily percentage moves in the Henry Hub natural gas benchmark, net of expenses, according to sponsor USCF Investments. Because it holds and rolls futures contracts from one month to the next, longer-run returns can diverge from the spot market when forward prices are higher than near-term prices — a structure traders call contango.
Gas-linked equities also eased, with top U.S. producer EQT down about 1.2%, Antero Resources off 1.1% and Range Resources down 1.2%. LNG exporter Cheniere Energy slipped about 1.0%.
But the weather remains the biggest swing factor. A turn back toward colder forecasts, unplanned production outages, or disruptions at LNG facilities can force rapid short-covering in a market that has been volatile since late December.
Traders are watching the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s weekly natural gas storage report due on Thursday, Jan. 8, for the next clear read on winter supply-demand balance. The report is typically released at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, with updated temperature models and LNG feedgas flows likely to set the tone into the end of the week.
