NEW YORK, Jan 2, 2026, 13:44 ET — Regular session
- U.S. natural gas futures eased, extending a volatile week driven by shifting weather forecasts.
- LNG exporter Cheniere rose, after data showed the U.S. set a fresh annual LNG export record in 2025.
- Traders are watching next week’s U.S. storage report and early-January temperature models.
U.S. natural gas futures edged lower on Friday, while shares of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporters and pipeline operators traded higher in a mixed energy tape.
The moves matter now because winter heating demand can swing quickly with temperature forecasts, and U.S. LNG exports have become a bigger, steadier source of demand for domestic gas.
They also matter for stocks because gas-focused producers are closely tied to price moves, while LNG exporters and pipeline operators tend to benefit from volumes moving through their plants and pipes.
The February NYMEX Henry Hub contract — the U.S. benchmark priced at the Henry Hub in Louisiana — was last down 2.1 cents at $3.665 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), a standard unit of gas heat content.
The United States Natural Gas Fund, an exchange-traded fund that tracks near-dated gas futures, fell about 1.3%, while the leveraged ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas ETF slid about 4.5%.
A government report released this week showed working gas in storage in the Lower 48 states stood at 3,375 billion cubic feet (bcf) for the week ended Dec. 26, down 38 bcf from the prior week. EIA data also showed inventories slightly above the five-year average for that date.
The modest withdrawal helped keep pressure on prices earlier in the week, with analysts pointing to forecasts for warmer weather in the eastern half of the United States in early January.
Against that backdrop, investors also digested fresh data showing U.S. LNG exports hit a record in 2025, helped by new capacity and high utilization at existing plants, preliminary LSEG data cited by Reuters showed.
The United States shipped 111 million metric tons of LNG in 2025 — the first country to top 100 million tons in a year — and Venture Global’s Plaquemines facility delivered 16.4 million tons after starting up in late 2024, the data showed.
“High utilization across onstream terminals and a rapid ramp up at new facilities” drove the jump, Alex Munton, director of global gas and LNG at Rapidan Energy Group, told Reuters. Reuters
In U.S. equities, Cheniere Energy rose about 2.6%. Pipeline operators Kinder Morgan and Williams gained about 1.0% and 1.3%, respectively, while top U.S. gas producer EQT slipped about 0.7%.
Traders’ next near-term focus is the Energy Information Administration’s next weekly storage report, due Jan. 8, along with updated weather models for early and mid-January that can quickly reset expectations for heating demand.
