Natural gas prices in New York City rose by nearly $60 per million BTUs on Monday as a record cold snap has driven demand for the heating fuel in the northeastern U.S. to an expected 5-year high of 38.3 billion cubic feet for Tuesday. Demand reached 26.9 billion cubic feet on Monday according to Platts. One million cubic feet is roughly equal to 1 billion BTUs.
At the Henry Hub pricing point in Louisiana, natural gas for February delivery was down slightly today at $4.30 per million BTUs.
Cold weather is expected to continue over much of the U.S. for the next several days, with wind chills into the -40 degree range in areas around the Great Lakes. Washington, D.C., is expecting a high of 20 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday, while New York can look forward to a high of 14 degrees.
The spike in natural gas prices will hit consumers with hefty bills which likely will put a damper on their discretionary spending for the next month or so — or longer if the bitter weather returns. The impact of the cold weather on the recovering U.S. economy is more than negligible, even though it is pretty tough to quantify.
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks