The NYMEX December natural gas futures contract rose 11.8 cents to a $4.489/MMBtu settlement Thursday as the market reacted to continued cold weather and the first storage withdrawal of the season, which also came in slightly above expectations. It was a volatile day for the front month. The contract spiked immediately after the US Energy Information Administration reported a storage withdrawal of 17 Bcf — the first net draw of the season. The pull was higher than the 9-13 Bcf most analysts had predicted as well as the 10 Bcf five-year average draw, and left stocks at 3.594 Tcf for the week ended November 14. But the contract later dipped to the day low before rising again in the last hour of trading. “There are still a lot of day traders in the market. I’m guessing that pullback was no more than long […]