Crude-oil futures were choppy in Asian trading hours Monday but largely held on to gains made last week as markets await more economic data releases and energy agency reports in the next few days. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded at $99.72 a barrel at 0642 GMT, down $0.16 in the Globex electronic session. March Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.39 to $109.18 a barrel. Both Brent and Nymex WTI crude pared early gains before slipping into negative territory. The oil benchmarks had settled at their highest levels so far this year on Friday on some supply concerns in the Middle East and strong U.S. winter fuel demand. “The front-month [U.S.] heating oil prices have been tracking five-year highs since early August, due to refining turnarounds, winter weather and low inventory levels,” Barclays analyst Michael Cohen said […]