Natural-gas futures drop nearly 4% on supply jump                                                                 (                                      NGN13                                 )                                                                  by Myra P. Saefong                            

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Natural-gas futures dropped on Thursday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a bigger-than-expected climb in last week's U.S. supplies. Natural-gas inventories rose by 111 billion cubic foot for the week ended May 31. Analysts polled by Platts forecasted a climb between 93 billion cubic feet and 97 billion cubic feet. Total stocks now stand at 2.252 trillion cubic feet, down 616 billion cubic feet from the year-ago level and 69 billion cubic feet below the five-year average, the government said. July natural gas     (ngn13)   was at $3.86 per million British thermal units, down 14 cents, or 3.6%. It was trading at $3.93 shortly before the data.