Energy market now at the mercy of the weather

Fuel crunch: A technician handles a truck with radioactive waste in France. About a third of the country’s nuclear capacity will be halted at the start of January, pushing prices up everywhere as it normally exports power at peak times. — AP

LONDON: Everyone may be back to watching the daily number of coronavirus cases as the Omicron variant spreads through Europe, but the energy market is focusing on a more traditional gauge of worry: the temperature.

Prices soared to new records this week because of the impact of unexpected nuclear outages in France and worryingly low stockpiles across the continent.