Weaker-than-expected manufacturing data from China put pressure on crude oil futures in Asian trading hours Thursday, reversing gains after oil benchmarks touched their highest levels this year. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded at $103.07 a barrel at 0454 GMT, down $0.24 in the Globex electronic session. April Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.59 to $109.88 a barrel. The preliminary HSBC China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, a gauge of nationwide manufacturing activity, fell to 48.3 in February from 49.5 in January. The data will contribute to short-term downside in crude oil today, largely due to negative sentiment, but the impact on actual physical crude demand is limited as China’s long-term oil fundamentals remain intact, analyst Tan Chee Tat at Singapore-based Phillip Futures said. China is the world’s second-largest oil consumer and diesel fuel is a major fuel […]