MW:Crude oil rises but struggles ahead of $100/barrel
By V. Phani Kumar
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures continued their advance into Friday's Asian trading hours, encouraged by a weakened U.S. dollar and higher Asian stock markets, but facing resistance closer to the $100-a-barrel level. The front-month futures contract of light, sweet crude oil for delivery in February CL2G +0.36% rose 11 cents, or 0.1%, to $99.64 a barrel on Globex. The contract, which hit a high of $99.70 earlier in the day, rose for a fourth-straight session during regular floor trading Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
