U.S. natural gas futures soared over 70% during the last half hour of trade on Thursday and closed up 46% in their highest daily percentage gains on record. The move puzzled a number of market-watchers, who struggled to explain what could have caused such a spike. The answer lies in the low-volume action because Thursday was the last day of that contract’s life – when very few buyers would be willing to take a position as most had already moved on to other contracts. These occurrences are becoming more common, though usually not on the order of what happened Thursday. “Gas contracts rolling off the board have gained an average 12.1 cents […]