Oil Futures Poised to End 2017 at Fresh 2 1/2-Year Highs

Oil futures rallied anew in Friday morning Asian trading after initial softness, setting the stage for both to log fresh 2017 settlement highs.

--February light, sweet crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange was recently up 0.7% at $60.25 a barrel in the Globex trading session. March Brent rose 0.6% to $66.55.

--Through Thursday, the US benchmark had gained 11% this year, versus 17% for the global Brent standard. The market has improved amid optimism about years of oversupply ebbing, capped by rising demand and the OPEC-led production-cap deal being extended through 2018. Both have been at 2 1/2-year highs of late.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 28, 2017 23:53 ET (04:53 GMT)