Crude-oil futures extended overnight gains in Asian trading hours Tuesday with the U.S. crude benchmark hovering just below the $105 mark. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in July traded at $104.70 a barrel at 0500 GMT, up $0.29 in the Globex electronic session. July Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.11 to $110.10 a barrel. Nymex WTI crude gained 1.7% overnight, and has been up for two consecutive trading sessions ahead of the inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute, a trade body, due later Tuesday. The U.S. Energy Information Administration will also publish its short-term energy outlook later Tuesday, while its closely watched inventory survey is due on Wednesday. The downtrend in crude stocks at the Nymex delivery point of Cushing, Oklahoma is the key factor in driving up WTI prices, analyst Tim Evans at Citi […]