Grope

As expected, follow-through buying took natural gas prices higher Tuesday morning as more buyers jumped on the bandwagon following a two-day, 40-cent gain. However, all good things must come to an end and prices tumbled lower Tuesday afternoon amid a round of light profit taking. December finished at $4.261, down 0.2 cents for the day and in the bottom half of its $4.215-335 trading range. Estimated volume was relatively heavy, with 95,767 contracts changing hands.