Crude-oil futures rose in Asian trade Monday as the excessive drop in oil prices in recent weeks sparked some buying interest and short-covering among investors before the end of the year, traders said. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in February traded at $58.09 a barrel at 0352 GMT, up $0.96 in the Globex electronic session. February Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $1.16 to $62.54 a barrel. The price of Nymex crude fell 2.23% last week for the fourth consecutive week. During those four weeks Nymex lost 26.13%–the largest percentage decline for that time period since the week ended Dec. 26, 2008. Brent crude fell 1.24% last week and has also dropped for the last four consecutive weeks, losing 23.62% of its value. On Sunday, Gulf oil officials defended the decision of the Organisation of the Petroleum […]