LONDON—Soaring gas prices that threaten to push up winter fuel bills, hurt consumption and exacerbate a near-term spike in inflation are another blow to a world economy just getting back on its feet after the coronavirus shock. The gas market chaos, which has driven prices 280 percent higher in Europe this year and led to a 100 percent-plus surge in the United States, is being blamed on a range of factors from low storage levels to carbon prices to reduced Russian supplies. So high are tensions that several European Parliament lawmakers have demanded an investigation into what they said could be market manipulation by Russia’s Gazprom. Whatever the causes, the surge carries major market implications: 1/Growth Analysts say it’s too early to downgrade economic growth forecasts but a hit to economic activity looks inevitable. Morgan Stanley reckons the impact in the United States, the world’s biggest economy, should be small. …
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