Natural gas futures advanced for the first time in four days in New York as utilities and storage companies took advantage of low prices to buy supplies. A 25 percent drop in gas this year may be giving consumers and investors the chance to profit from storing gas now and selling at higher prices during the winter. Gas for delivery in January is more than $2 higher than June futures. “Clearly, natural gas has made a bottom” said Tom Orr, director of research at Weeden & Co., a brokerage in Greenwich, Connecticut. “We’re not too far off with the air conditioning season and then the storm season. People are going to play their cards a little closer to the vest now.” Natural gas for June delivery climbed 10.6 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $4.204 per million British thermal units at 11:42 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The fuel has tumbled 69 percent since reaching a 2008 high of $13.694 per million Btu in July. “Obviously, people were caught short on it,” said Carl Neill, an energy analyst at Risk Management Inc. in Chicago. “You’ve had end-user buyers who were holding out and when the market spiked they got back in.” Natural gas has climbed 27 percent after closing at $3.253 per million Btu on April 27, the lowest since September 2002. The number of gas rigs operating in the U.S. fell by 2 to 728 last week, the lowest since the week ended Jan. 31, 2003, according to data published by Baker Hughes Inc. The total was down 55 percent from a peak of 1,606 on Sept. 12. “The count’s still dropping,” Orr said. “It keeps coming down week after week. The trend is favorable now.” Economic Recovery Gas also gained on optimism the economy will rebound from the recession, lifting demand for the industrial fuel. Lowe’s Cos., the second-largest U.S. home-improvement retailer, posted first quarter earnings that fell less than analysts estimated. “It’s this repetitive theme where it’s the economy,” said Michael Rose, a director of trading at Angus Jackson Inc., a brokerage in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “As equities go so does the energy markets. Right now we are in lockstep.” The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 1.7 percent to 898.25 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 1.8 percent to 8,418.77. Between March 9 and May 8, the S&P 500 jumped 37 percent, the steepest two-month advance since the 1930s, on signs the recession is easing. Industrial consumption of gas may tumble 8 percent this year because of the recession, the Energy Department said on May 12. Overall U.S. consumption is expected to contract 1.9 percent, outpacing reductions in output. Weekly production of raw steel in the seven days ended May 9 rose to 1.02 million tons, up 28 percent from a 2008 low on Dec. 29, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. “If the economy can do well, then people can afford to start doing some new stuff,” Rose said. “This is going to be the same story until we get through this credit crisis or when the Obama stimulus funds” trickle into the economy.

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