Natural gas prices shook off a slightly larger storage injection than expected, with the July contract settling a couple ticks higher on the day. 

There was more action later along the strip, however, with decent gains for much of the late summer and fall strip. 

Those gains came despite the EIA announcing a 96 bcf injection of natural gas into storage last week, coming in above our 90 bcf expectation. 

Though we were 6 bcf away from the number, in our Morning Update we had highlighted that the EIA print could miss higher the expected and there was potential for price downside around the number. However, we also pointed out that any downside would not be sustained. 

Part of the risk for this injection to be larger than expected was identified in our weather-adjusted power burn model, which showed significant loosening this past week. This trend started in our Note of the Day last Tuesday, when we noted a clear loosening trend that would increase this week's injection. 

This print was still tighter than the last print, which had to contend with holiday demand destruction from Memorial Day, but certainly was not as tight as some other tight prints. 

In our EIA Rapid Release issued immediately after the report today we showed clients our latest EOS estimate and how the print compared on a weather-adjusted basis to the 5-year average, past year of prints, and a number of other baselines. Below are a couple of the baselines used in our balance analysis. 

Attention now turns to next week's EIA print as traders continue to weigh this bearish miss against stockpiles that sit far below seasonal averages.