Eschew

In a textbook example of why traders eschew short positions heading into a holiday weekend, natural gas futures erupted higher Tuesday, as a combination of fund and local buying drove the market up 9% to match recent highs. After gapping higher at the open, the March contract wasted precious little time yesterday as it moved above its 40-day moving average in the first 10 minutes of trading. Buyers did not once look back, boosting the prompt month to its highest close since Jan. 2, up 19.1 cents at $2.397. At 111,562, heavy estimated volume served to punctuate the price move.