US natgas slips on profit taking, but settles with weekly gain

U.S. natural gas futures edged lower on Friday as traders locked in profits ahead of the weekend after prices climbed to a more than one-month high in the previous session, though the contract logged a third consecutive weekly gain on forecasts for warmer weather.

On its first day as the front-month, gas futures for October delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 2.6 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $2.888 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). The front-month contract posted a weekly gain of 4.2%.

"There's just some sell-side interest after the big price response we've seen this week. So probably a little repositioning or profit taking ahead of the weekend," said Robert DiDona, president of Energy Ventures Analysis.

"We don't expect this to turn into a larger sell-off. If anything, we might see some bid interest come back in towards the end of the day and push this price back towards a break-even level," added DiDona.