In a shocking move that appears to be based on more than pure fundamentals, natural gas futures surged as much as 35.5 cents on Monday, busting out of their previous trading range and closing nearly 17% higher than Friday. The September contract reached a $2.154/MMBtu intraday high before going on to settle at $2.101, up 30.2 cents day/day. October jumped 28.2 cents to $2.239.

Evening markets

Spot gas prices also moved considerably higher despite the cooler weather in store for this week, with NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. climbing 20.0 cents to $1.790.

Nymex futures raced out of the gates early Monday, supported by hotter-trending forecasts for later this month as well as stronger liquefied natural gas (LNG) demand. September futures were up 6.0 cents at the open and continued to push higher...