Crude-oil futures surged in Asian trading hours Friday with both global oil benchmarks trading near their highest levels in nine months as investors focused on escalating violence in Iraq, an important oil producer. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in July traded at $106.96 a barrel at 0519 GMT, up $0.43 in the Globex electronic session. July Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.26 to $113.28 a barrel. Nymex WTI crude for July delivery gained $2.13 a barrel overnight to touch its highest settlement since September and was well above the $107 mark for most of the Asian morning. Brent gained more than $3 overnight, its largest one-day gain in dollar terms since late-August. The situation in Iraq continued to deteriorate as Sunni fighters headed toward Baghdad . Iran has deployed Revolutionary Guards units to Iraq and the U.S. is also […]