Crude-oil futures rose in Asian trade Friday ahead U.S. rig-count data due later in the trading day, and Chinese official manufacturing numbers expected over the weekend. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in April traded at $49.10 a barrel at 0508 GMT, up $0.93 in the Globex electronic session. April Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.99 to $61.04 a barrel. Oil bounced back after dropping sharply in the last trading session with Brent crude better supported than Nymex West Texas Intermediate, but prices are likely to remain volatile in the near-term. The premium of Brent crude to Nymex WTI crude remains wide at almost $12 a barrel, its widest in more than a year. This week’s U.S. rig-count data will be released by oil-field-services firm Baker Hughes Inc. later Friday. “It is pretty obvious that a fall […]