Oil Futures Remain at 3-Year Highs

Oil futures built on Wednesday's 2% gains in Asian trading Thursday ahead of weekly U.S. inventory data.

--February light, sweet crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange was recently up 0.5% at $61.92 a barrel in the Globex trading session. March Brent rose 0.2% to $67.97.

--Wednesday's jump to 3-year highs was attributed by some to demand worries both in Iran--where antigovernment protests are ongoing--and the US--where ongoing cold weather has raised concerns about some petroleum-industry infrastructure.

--Meanwhile, late Wednesday's industry-group reading on U.S. inventories was largely in line with what the government's Thursday release is expected to show.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 03, 2018 23:38 ET (04:38 GMT)