UPDATE 2-Oil near two-week high on economic optimism

                                
 * Stock markets gain, dollar weakens to lift oil
                                
 * OPEC ministers signal output quotas to remain unchanged
                                
 * Coming Up: U.S. Midwest manufacturing, Aug; 1600 GMT
 
                                
 (Recasts, updates prices, previously SINGAPORE)
                                
 By Joe Brock
                                
 LONDON, Sept. 27 (Reuters) - Oil rose towards $77 a barrel
on Monday, near a two-week high, supported by cautious optimism
over the strength of U.S. economic recovery and the outlook for
energy demand.
                                
 European shares gained ground on Monday after Asian stocks
rose to their highest in more than two years. This followed a
rally on Wall Street on Friday fuelled by encouraging economic
data. [.T] 
                                
 U.S. crude for November delivery <CLc1> rose 25 cents to
$76.74 a barrel at 0733 GMT after earlier touching $76.85, the
highest price since Sept. 14. On Friday it jumped 1.7 percent,
capping the strongest weekly gain since July. ICE Brent for
November <LCOc1> was up 9 cents at $78.96.
                                
 Global stocks gained and the dollar slid on Friday as
economic data both raised hopes the recovery is improving and
bolstered speculation the Federal Reserve will boost money
supply. [MKTS/GLOB] 
                                
 "The dollar has set a weaker tone and that's going to be
supportive for oil prices," said Mark Pervan, a senior
commodities analyst at ANZ in Melbourne, referring to the
greenback's drop to a five-month low against the euro on Monday.
                                
 "When you look at CFTC positions, there have been more
shorts, so there was potentially some short-covering too,"
Pervan said.
                                
 Money managers cut net-long crude oil positions on the New
York Mercantile Exchange to less than 97,000 in the week through
Sept. 21 from almost 114,000 a week earlier, the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission said on Friday. [ID:nN24198802]
                                
 That means the number of people betting for higher prices
decreased over the period, and the turnaround in prices at the
end of last week on the back of positive economic data created
incentives to revert those positions.
                                
 
                                
 U.S. DATA
                                
 New orders for a wide range of long-lasting U.S.
manufactured goods rose in August and business spending plans
rebounded strongly, separate reports showed on Friday, the
latest sign a sharp summer slowdown in the economy was abating.
                                
 The U.S. durable goods report eased some concerns of a
double-dip recession and implied a modest pick-up in output.
[ID:nN24184114] 
                                
 Venezuela is comfortable with global oil prices and will
call for current production levels to be maintained at an
Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting in
Vienna on Oct. 14, the country's oil minister Rafael Ramirez
said on Sunday. [ID:nN26214932]
                                
 Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah on
Saturday also said the group would leave quotas steady.
[ID:nSGE68O02I]
                                
 OPEC has left its output ceiling unchanged for almost two
years since announcing a record supply curb of 4.2 million
barrels per day in December 2008 to combat lower demand and
prices. OPEC complied with 53 percent of that reduction in
August, according to a Reuters survey. [OPEC/O]
                                
 Tropical depression Matthew, which sparked floods and
knocked over trees across Central America and southern Mexico on
Sunday, threatening waterlogged sugar and coffee farms, spared
Mexican oil installations. [ID:nN26213373]
 (Additional reporting by Alejandro Barbajosa in Singapore;
editing by Alison Birrane)