Natural gas futures quickly bounced back from the prior day’s nosedive as traders were hopeful Gulf Coast exports would soon resume full operations after a barge sunk near a key export terminal. Buoyed further by the latest government storage data, the November futures contract jumped 13.9 cents to $2.775/MMBtu. December climbed 7.2 cents to $3.261.

Spot gas prices were stronger across the vast majority of the country. NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. tacked on 9.0 cents to $2.080.

Erratic trading continued in the futures market, with extensive buying following Wednesday’s sell-off on the sunken barge news and some warmer trends in the weather data. Thursday brought about a solid step back higher as models reverted back colder, and there may be some LNG optimism, given that...