Natural Gas Price Prediction: XNG/USD recovers from its largest daily loss in a month to trade near $2.20 on sluggish markets

Early Thursday morning in Europe, the price of Natural Gas (XNG / USD) fluctuates around $2.22. In doing so, the energy instrument justifies the market's inaction while searching for additional clues for a clear direction after declining the most in a month the day before.

Nonetheless, growing concerns of recession, or at least weaker growth numbers, in the West combined with discussions of Northern Ireland's (NI) prohibition on Russian gas imports to weigh on XNG/USD prices the day before. Notably, China's disappointing inflation data also put downward pressure on the price of Natural Gas before the dragon nation's recent trade data provided a tailwind.

Headlines from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) indicate apprehensions of sluggish growth, if not recession, for the global economy in the future. On the same line could be macros predicting milder weather in the West and more restrictions on Russian gas from countries on the old continent, specifically Europe.

Notably, however, weak US inflation and dovish Fed Minutes impact on the US Dollar, allowing the XNG/USD to consolidate yesterday's losses as traders search for additional catalysts following a volatile Wednesday.

Ten-year and two-year Treasury bond yields in the United States show modest gains of 3.41 and 3.91 basis points, respectively, while reflecting the current state of the economy. In spite of this, US 10-year Treasury bond yields halted a three-day uptrend with modest losses to around 3.40 percent, while the two-year counterpart yielded the first daily decline in five days to reach 3.96 percent. Moreover, despite Wall Street's disappointing close, S&P 500 Futures post modest gains, whereas Japan's Nikkei 225 index is currently up 0.60 percent intraday.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) Natural Gas Storage Change for the week ending April 7, prior -23B, will be crucial for intraday direction moving forward. Nevertheless, the US US Producer Price Index (PPI) for March and Friday's preliminary readings of the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for April, as well as risk catalysts, may also attract XNG/USD traders' attention.