Crude oil futures dipped in mid-morning trade in Asia Dec. 24 as investors booked profits after a three-day bull run that pushed oil prices to highs not seen since late November.

At 10 am Singapore time (0200 GMT), the ICE February Brent futures contract was down 25 cents/b (0.33%) from the previous close at $76.60/b. NYMEX was closed for the Christmas holidays, though the NYMEX February light sweet crude contract had settled at the end of the prior day Dec. 23 up $1.03/b (1.42%) on the day at $73.79/b. Easing concerns over the omicron variant saw oil prices adding around 7.5% in value over the last three days. Both benchmarks were now hovering at highs not seen since Nov. 26. A spate of bullish headlines this week indicating positive developments in the fight against COVID-19 was boosting […]