Diminutive

With focus shifted away from last week’s diminutive storage withdrawal (80 Bcf) and onto forecasts for the coldest air thus far this winter, the natural gas futures market erupted higher Monday as sellers backed away from a steady stream of commercial short-covering and speculative buying. The February contract received the biggest boost in the market’s first trading session of the year, rallying 63.8 to close at $6.827. At 48,897 contracts, volume was extremely light for the session.