Natural gas posted its second-highest closing price since early July as forecasts for an early-winter chill have traders expecting rising demand for the fuel. The front-month December contract settled up 8.3 cents, or 2.1%, at $4.129 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Since July 14, prices have closed higher than that only once–on Sept. 29 at $4.154/mmBtu. Tuesday’s run extended a rally to a sixth day, with gas now up 16% from 2014’s low closing price set last week. Buyers have been rushing into the gas market for a week on fears of a sequel to last winter’s polar vortex, which walloped the eastern half of the U.S. with brutally cold temperatures from the deep south up to New England. Many spent months dismissing that possibility as simple panic, but now meteorologists are getting more pessimistic. Both Commodity Weather Group LLC […]