US NATGAS: Northeast update: demand up mostly on outflows

• Stocks have retreated steadily from Wednesday's midday highs, apparently as President Trump's cabinet meeting rekindled trade policy uncertainty that has weighed on sentiment since last week. Major indexes are drifting off lows in late trade with the DJIA down 131.9 points (-0.3%) at 43487.73, S&P E-Minis down 1.25 points (-0.02%) at 5969, Nasdaq up 16.1 points (0.1%) at 19042.61.
• Consumer Staples and Health Care sectors continued to underperform in late trade, food makers weighing on the former with Hershey -4.28%, The Campbell's Company -4.15%, General Mills -3.72%, Mondelez International -3.70% and Archer-Daniels-Midland -3.69%.
• Managed care and product distributor companies weighed on the Health Care sector: Molina Healthcare -8.63%, Centene -7.74%, HCA Healthcare-4.63% and Henry Schein -4.46%.
• On the positive side, Information Technology and Utility sectors continued to outperform, semiconductor makers supporting the former with First Solar +9.62% after reporting a 27% revenue gain and positive guidance late Tuesday, Micron Technology +4.16%, Broadcom +3.85% and Monolithic Power Systems +2.42%. Note, NVIDIA has pared gains but still trades +2.75% ahead of this afternoon's earnings announcement (1620ET).
• Meanwhile, NRG Energy +10.60%, Vistra +6.32% and Constellation Energy +2.68% led gainers in the Utility sector.
• Earnings expected after the close: Howard Hughes Holdings, Magnite Inc, Agilent Technologies, Snowflake, Nutanix Inc, Synopsys, eBay, NVIDIA, Salesforce, Kratos Defense & Security, Paramount Global, Teladoc Health, Sweetgreen and Core Scientific.

• -3,273 USM5 117-29, sell through 117-31 post time bid at 1425:21ET, DV01 $433,000. The June 30Y contract trades 117-31 last (+18)

• RES 4: 154.80 High Dec 12 ‘24 and a key resistance     
• RES 3: 153.37 50-day EMA 
• RES 2: 152.03 20-day EMA 
• RES 1: 150.74 High Feb 21         
• PRICE: 149.36 @ 16:20 GMT Feb 26
• SUP 1: 148.57 Low Feb 25
• SUP 2: 148.20 2.0% 10-dma envelope
• SUP 3: 148.01 Low Oct 9 ‘24
• SUP 4: 146.95 61.8% retracement of the Sep 16 ‘24 - Jan 10 bull leg  

While prices have stabilised, bearish conditions in USDJPY remain in place and the pair is trading at its recent lows. A push lower on Tuesday resulted in a print below key support at 148.65, the Dec 3 ‘24 low, to strengthen the bearish condition. A clear break of this level would pave the way for an extension towards 146.95, a Fibonacci retracement. On the upside, initial firm resistance to watch is 152.03, the 20-day EMA.