Natural-gas futures slid Friday but ended higher for the week as traders closed out their bets on higher prices following a record-high storage withdrawal. Natural gas for February delivery settled down 5.6 cents, or 1.3%, at $4.326 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices rose 6.7% this week. Futures surged to a two-and-a-half-week high Thursday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that natural-gas inventories fell by 287 billion cubic feet in the week ended Jan. 10, the largest storage withdrawal on record. Demand for natural gas has been consistently strong this winter as colder-than-average temperatures have prompted people to turn up the heat in homes and offices. About half of all […]