Natural gas stocks grow less than expected

Natural gas stockpile levels rose less than expected last week, the government said Thursday.

The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural gas inventories held in underground storage in the lower 48 states grew by 2 billion cubic feet to a new record high of about 3.84 trillion cubic feet for the week ended Nov. 20.

Analysts had expected a boost of between 3 billion and …