Natural-gas Prices Hold Gains With U.S. Supplies Up 49 Billion Cubic Feet

Natural-gas futures held onto their gains Friday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that supplies of natural gas rose 49 billion cubic feet for the week ended Nov. 6. Analysts polled by Platts were looking for climb of between 49 billion cubic feet and 53 billion cubic feet. Total stocks now stand at 3.978 trillion cubic feet, up 373 billion cubic feet from a year ago and 173 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. December natural gas was at $2.321 per million British thermal units, up 6.1 cents, or 2.7%. Prices traded around that same level before the supply data.