Natural gas bulls were on parade Thursday as the stars aligned to offer support for struggling futures prices. Thanks to lower production, a “quite strong” storage withdrawal, cooler-trending weather outlooks and solid export demand, the January Nymex futures contract settled 11.1 cents higher at $2.553. February jumped 11.4 cents to $2.570.

Spot gas prices continued to fluctuate a few cents in either direction, but large decreases were seen on the East and West coasts. NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. fell 3.0 cents to $2.430.

After erasing some of the stout gains mounted early Wednesday, traders were on edge Thursday morning ahead of the latest government storage data. January Nymex futures were up a few cents early in the session, largely because of a sustained decline in...