Natural gas jumps 6%, crude oil settles up 2%

MarketWatch.com - MarketPulse SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude oil and natural gas futures settled up higher Tuesday as continued cold weather keeps demand high. Crude oil for March delivery rose $2.13, or 2.1%, to settle at $102.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural gas for March delivery settled up nearly 34 cents, or 6.5%, at $5.55 per million British thermal units. To a lesser extent, gasoline and heating oil also closed higher with gasoline for March delivery settling up nearly 3 cents, or 1%, at $2.83 a gallon, and heating oil for March delivery up 2 cents, or 0.8%, at $3.10 a gallon. Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.