Natural-gas prices rose to a seven-week high as warm weather and slowing production are causing a rally by forcing bearish traders to cut their positions. Prices for the front-month June contract settled up 9.5 cents, or 3.4%, at $2.897 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It is the highest closing price since March 18. Gas is also nearing a bull market, rising more than 16% since it closed at a 2 1/2-year low on April 27. This week’s weather forecasts have sparked more optimism than the ones from late last week, Dominick Chirichella, analyst at the Energy Management Institute, said in a note. Forecasts show warmer-than-normal temperatures settling in over the entire East Coast and large parts of the Midwest for most of the second half of May, raising expectations that power plants could burn […]