Heating demand rises, U.S. natural gas futures prices spike nearly 10%, related concept stocks follow suit.

U.S. natural gas futures surged nearly 10% on Monday, as weekend weather forecasts showed an increase in heating demand. Analysts also pointed out that the rise may have been triggered by short-covering. The near-month natural gas contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed up 9.4% at $2.920 per million British thermal units, the highest level since October 3 and the largest single-day percentage increase since February 21. Natural gas stocks also rose, with Antero Resources (AR.US) and Comstock Resources (CRK.US) up nearly 8%, EQT Corp. (EQT.US) up nearly 7%, CNX Resources (CNX.US) and Range Resources (RRC.US) up over 4%, Expand Energy (EXE.US) and Coterra Energy (CTRA.US) up over 3%. EBW Analytics analyst Eli Rubin said that the appearance of colder weather "is starting to alleviate the heavy burden of what has historically been a mild start to the heating season." After last week's bearish momentum reached exhaustion, bullish catalysts including production declines and colder weather are fueling the long-awaited relief rally. Most analysts expect supplies to remain relatively high, but the prospect of cooler weather is enough to support futures prices, at least for now. Ritterbusch analysts wrote, "If weather is the sole driver of price gains, we would expect much of today's gains to be retraced before the week's end. We have yet to witness a deviation colder than normal." In Europe, the decrease in wind power generation with the arrival of winter has also supported natural gas prices, increasing the demand for natural gas in some European countries. The benchmark Dutch TTF natural gas contract price is also rising; according to Gas Infrastructure Europe, EU natural gas storage levels stand at 93.6%, slightly above the 5-year average but lower than last year's levels.