NATURAL GAS HITS ONE-MONTH HIGH AMID RUMORS THAT UKRAINE COULD JOIN NATO

• Natural Gas prices are swinging higher after reports that NATO is floating the idea to add Ukraine.
• Meanwhile PetroChina is set to expand its LNG business. 
• The US Dollar Index orbits around 104.00 ahead of US CPI numbers and FOMC Minutes.

Natural Gas (XNG/USD) price rallies for a fourth consecutive day, posting a nearly 6.5% gain this week. Gas prices got another boost overnight after a Bloomberg Intelligence article reported that in diplomatic circles there is talk around the idea of incorporating Ukraine into NATO, which would be oil on the fire for Russia. Adding to this, increasing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East underpin Gas prices as Israel redirects its troops towards the Lebanon border.  

The DXY US Dollar Index, meanwhile, is hovering around 104.00 ahead of the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) print for March, which looks crucial for the interest-rate outlook for the rest of this year. A disinflationary print would fall in line with what the Fed has been communicating. However, any surprise upticks could turn into a massacre for markets as investors could interpret that the US Federal Reserve (Fed) President Jerome Powell and the broader Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) are making the biggest policy mistake in decades. The release of the Minutes from the recent Fed meeting could ease any extensive moves on the back of the CPI print earlier this Wednesday.

Natural Gas is trading at $2.03 per MMBtu at the time of writing.