New York, January 5, 2026, 14:17 EST — Regular session
- UNG fell about 4% as U.S. natural gas futures slid more than 5% on warmer forecasts
- Leveraged gas ETFs swung in double digits, underscoring winter-driven volatility
- Traders are focused on Thursday’s U.S. storage report and mid-January weather model updates
Shares of the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) fell about 4% on Monday as benchmark U.S. natural gas futures dropped more than 5% in winter trade. The NYSE Arca-listed fund was down 4.1% at $11.57, while the February Henry Hub contract fell 5.5% to $3.419 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), a standard unit for gas pricing. 1
The move matters now because the market is still in the heart of the heating season, when a few degrees of temperature change can quickly rewrite demand expectations. Meteorologists are pointing to a nationwide warm spell into the second half of January, a setup that typically trims heating demand and loosens balances. 2
It also lands at a time when traders are repositioning into the new year, and natural gas has been prone to sharp reversals after late-2025 swings. Leveraged natural-gas ETFs amplified Monday’s drop: ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas (BOIL) fell 11.5% while the inverse ProShares UltraShort Bloomberg Natural Gas (KOLD) rose 11.8%.
A slide in futures can feed quickly into products tied to the “front-month” contract — the nearest futures contract to expire — because they reset exposure daily. UNG is designed to track daily price movements in natural gas using NYMEX futures and shifts to the next-month contract when the near-month is within two weeks of expiration, the fund’s sponsor said.
Consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates flagged $3 per mmBtu as a downside line to watch if weather fails to turn colder, warning futures “risk sliding to $3 without weather boost.” 2
Other gas-linked products moved lower but less dramatically. The United States 12 Month Natural Gas Fund (UNL), which spreads exposure across a year of contracts, fell 3.8%, and the First Trust Natural Gas ETF (FCG), which holds gas-weighted producers, fell 2.4%.
In gas equities, Range Resources slipped 1.8% and EQT was down about 0.9%, moves that tracked the futures weakness more than any company-specific news. Kinder Morgan was little changed, highlighting how midstream operators can be less sensitive to day-to-day commodity swings than producers.
Investors in futures-based funds also watch the shape of the futures curve. In “contango” — when later-dated contracts cost more than near-term ones — funds that roll contracts can face a drag over time as they sell cheaper, expiring contracts and buy pricier, later ones.
The next near-term catalyst is U.S. storage data. The Energy Information Administration is due to publish its Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report on Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, with the next release scheduled for January 8.
The risk to Monday’s bearish read is a fast flip in weather models or an unexpected demand jump that forces short-covering. For now, traders are watching whether futures hold above the $3 area flagged by analysts and whether Thursday’s storage report confirms looser balances into mid-January.
