Natural gas prices inched up 0.4% Thursday as colder-than-average weather forecasts are seen keeping demand high for gas-powered heating. Natural gas for January delivery, which expires Friday, settled 1.7 cents higher at $4.433 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The more-actively traded February contract climbed 0.7 cent, or 0.2%, at $4.476/mmBtu. The eastern two-thirds of the U.S. will see a bout of below-normal temperatures in the next six to 10 days, according to Andover, Mass.-based weather forecaster WSI Corp. “In the first two weeks of the new year, it looks like we’ll see some cold across the east,” said Gene McGillian, trader and broker for Tradition Energy in Stamford, Conn. “Supportive weather fundamentals are the […]