The blizzard barreling toward the East Coast may be terrible news for travelers, but it is a rare bit of respite for beleaguered natural-gas producers. Expectations of freezing temperatures and a blanket of snow from Nashville to New York have pushed local natural-gas prices above $5 per million British thermal units in parts of the Northeast for the first time since last winter. That has heated up shares of companies that drill in nearby Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. Through Thursday’s close, only six of 79 U.S.-listed energy exploration and production companies had stocks that were in positive territory so far this year. The gainers all drill for gas in Appalachia. It is a major reversal of fortune for these companies—at least for now. Winter Storm Jonas itself is unlikely to create enough demand to broadly boost U.S. gas prices too much. And it could even reduce demand for […]