Uncharacteristic

Natural gas futures remained an uncharacteristic beacon of stability and suffered only a modest setback as other markets cascaded lower in volatile trading. At the close September natural gas had retreated 0.6 cent to $3.935 and October gave up just 0.5 cent to $3.957. November through June 2012 posted modest gains. By contrast the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 635 points to 10,810 and September crude oil tumbled $5.57 to $81.31/bbl. Gold rose $70 to $1,722/oz, a record, and the yield on 10-year treasuries zoomed 20 basis points to 2.37%, the highest one-day move since May 2009.