Crude-oil futures cooled off in Asian trading hours Thursday after a sharp overnight surge and on disappointing manufacturing data from China. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded at $96.65 a barrel at 0609 GMT, down $0.08 in the Globex electronic session. March Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.24 to $108.03 a barrel. The preliminary HSBC China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index for January was at 49.6, compared with a final reading of 50.5 in December, the first contraction in six months. A score above 50 indicates an increase in manufacturing, while a score below points toward contraction. China is the world’s second-largest oil consumer after the U.S. and slowing economic activity is likely to weigh on crude prices, analyst Tan Chee Tat at Phillip Futures Pte. Ltd. said. U.S. crude inventories for the week ended Jan. 17 rose […]