-Natural-gas prices closed at a new six-month low for a third-straight session as cooler-than-normal forecasts continue to raise hopes for more large surpluses. Prices for the front-month August contract settled down 3.4 cents, or 0.8%, to $4.17 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That is the lowest closing price since gas landed at $4.053/mmBtu on Jan. 10. Weather forecasts suggest consumers won’t be running air conditioners as much as they usually do, dampening demand for electricity and the gas that fuels it. Forecasts for a week and two weeks out show cooler-than-average temperatures spreading across the Midwest, with some spots as much as 15 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than normal next week, according to MDA Weather Services. “If we don’t have sustained cooling demands across the major gas-consuming regions of the country, then the production is just going […]