Crude-oil futures traded in a narrow price range in Asian hours Tuesday as investors digested China’s manufacturing numbers, and ahead of weekly U.S. oil-inventory reports. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in May traded at $101.42 a barrel at 0621 GMT, down $0.16 in the Globex electronic session. May Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.13 to $107.63 a barrel. China’s official manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index rose to 50.3 in March from 50.2 in February. HSBC’s China manufacturing PMI fell to 48.0 in March from 48.5 in February. The HSBC data is more representative of small businesses while the official PMI better captures large, state-owned enterprises. “That last month’s rise was the smallest March increase on record suggests that both PMIs remain downbeat,” economist Julian Evans-Pritchard at Capital Economics wrote in a note. The manufacturing data suggests that […]