Natural-gas prices halted a brief rally, slipping as traders prepare for the end of winter. The front-month April contract settled down 0.2 cents, or 0.1%, at $2.839 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It ended a three-session rally even though prices briefly surged to their highest intraday point in a week. Private and government meteorologists are showing normal and above-normal temperatures for at least half the country by mid-March. It would be the end of an arctic chill across the eastern half of the country that led to the coldest February in about 30 years. It would also appear to be the end of the season’s spike in heating demand, analysts said. “It seems the fears of winter are evaporating,” said Gene McGillian, an analyst at Tradition Energy. Half of U.S. homes use natural gas for heating fuel, so single-digit temperatures […]