: Natural-gas futures hold gains after EIA reports a weekly rise in U.S. supplies

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Thursday that U.S. natural-gas supplies in storage rose by 41 billion cubic feet for the week ended July 14. Analysts had called for a storage increase of 48 billion cubic feet on average, according to a survey conducted by S&P Global Commodity Insights. Total working gas in storage for the week was at 2.971 trillion cubic feet, up 575 billion cubic feet from a year ago and 360 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. In Thursday dealings, August natural gas NGQ23 traded at $2.738 per million British thermal units, up 13.5 cents, or 5.2%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.  Prices traded at $2.73 ahead of the supply data.

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