Natural gas prices rise nearly one percent after forecast-beating storage drawdown

Natural gas futures rose nearly one percent in American trade, shrugging off the dollar's modest rise, which follows a spate of data from the U.S., the world's largest energy consumer, including the EIA inventory report that showed a forecast-beating drawdown last week. 

As of 07:19 GMT, natural gas futures due on April 15 rose 0.63% to $3.030 per million British thermal units from the opening of $3.011, with an intraday high at $3.051, and a low at $2.986, while the dollar index rose 0.10% to 99.77 from the opening of 99.67. 

Earlier U.S. data showed unemployment claims for the week ending March 18 up to 258 thousand from 243K in the previous reading, compared to expectations of 240K, while continuing claims fell 39 thousand in the week ending March 11 to two million claims from 2.039 million, below expectations of 2.040M. 

U.S. new hole sales rose 6.1% in February to an annualized 592 million units, compared to January's 5.3% rise to 558 million, while analysts expected a 1.6% rise to 566 million. 

Additionally, Fed Chair Janet Yellen presented opening remarks at the Federal Reserve System Community Development Research Conference, in Washington DC; mentioning subjects such as poverty and education in order to develop children's skill and improve the U.S. labor efficiency, but Yellen didn't talk about the monetary policy or comment further on the recent rate hike decision. 

Finally, the Energy Information Administration released its report on U.S. natural gas storage, showing a deficit of 150 billion cubic feet in the week ending March 17, much larger than the previous week's 53B drawdown, while analysts expected a 147B drop.