Natural Gas Turns Higher As Supplies Rise Less Than Expected

Natural-gas futures turned higher Thursday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that supplies of natural gas rose by 81 billion cubic feet for the week ended April 24. Analysts surveyed by Platts forecast a climb of between 84 billion cubic feet and 88 billion cubic feet. Total stocks now stand at 1,710 trillion cubic feet, up 741 billion cubic feet from a year ago and 75 billion cubic feet below the five-year average, the government said. June natural gas was at $2.687 per million British thermal units, up 8.1 cents, or 3.1%. It was trading around $2.56 before the data.