Oil Futures Continue to Rise

Oil prices continued to rise in Asian trading Friday after the U.S. benchmark matched the global Brent standard in reaching levels last seen in mid-2015.

--December light, sweet crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange was recently up 0.5% at $54.81 a barrel in the Globex trading session. January Brent rose 0.4% to $60.84.

--While noting things continue to improve with crude and fuel supplies approaching 5-year averages, BMI Research says prices may be moving ahead of fundamentals. "We expect the bullish positioning to moderate...as demand softens seasonally and inventories build" into early 2018.

Write to Biman Mukherji at biman.mukherji@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 03, 2017 00:19 ET (04:19 GMT)