Precious

After spending precious little time in the $1.80s Monday, February natural gas futures bubbled higher on expiration day yesterday as a late round of local short-covering boosted prices back above the $2.00 mark. By virtue of its 9.8-cent gain and $2.006 final settlement price, the February contract managed to avoid last October’s fate of a sub-$2.00 closing price. Volume was normal for an expiration day with 129,016 contracts changing hands.