Oil surged above $59 a barrel on Monday in a volatile market as traders covered short positions, after a strong end to last week as financial traders increased bets on higher prices amid a slowdown in U.S. drilling. Front-month Brent crude futures LCOc1 were trading up $1.40 at $59.28 a barrel by 0810 GMT (12.10 a.m. ET), while U.S. crude CLc1 had risen $1.22 to $52.86 a barrel. “Recently there is no direction. If the market rises a lot then a lot of short covers come into the market. It’s the same when prices fall,” said Ken Hasegawa, comodity sales manager at Newedge. Speculators in U.S. crude futures and options raised net long positions by 52 million barrels in the week to April 7, their biggest weekly rise since 2011, data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed. Reuters data shows open interest in WTI […]