Natural gas prices and the gas storage report: Public news and volatility in energy futures markets

This study examines the short-term volatility of natural gas prices through an examination of the intraday prices of the nearby natural gas futures contract traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The influence on volatility of what many regard as a key element of the information set influencing the natural gas market is investigated. Specifically, we examine the impact on natural gas futures price volatility of the Weekly American Gas Storage Survey report compiled and issued by the American Gas Association during the period January 1, 1999 through May 3, 2002 and the subsequent weekly report compiled and issued by the U.S. Energy Information Administration after May 6, 2002. We find that the weekly gas storage report announcement was responsible for considerable volatility at the time of its release and that volatility up to 30 minutes following the announcement was also higher than normal. Aside from these results, we document pronounced price volatility in this market both at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day and offer explanations for such behavior. Our results are robust to the manner in which the mean percentage change in the futures price is estimated and to correlation of these changes both within the day and across days. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.