SINGAPORE, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Crude on Thursday held onto
most of the previous session's gain of 2.8 percent after
manufacturing in top consumers the United States and China
accelerated in August, raising hopes record oil inventories
will draw down and reviving confidence across markets.
FUNDAMENTALS
* U.S. crude for October delivery <CLc1> slipped 16 cents
to $73.75 a barrel by 0051 GMT, after a $1.99 jump on
Wednesday.
* The Institute for Supply Management on Wednesday showed
U.S. factory activity rose in August for a 13th straight month.
Investors had been expecting the ISM reading to show a decline
in manufacturing from July, which would have fit with recent
data that has depicted a slowdown in U.S. growth.
* Wednesday's rally in oil prices was earlier triggered by
data showing China's manufacturing industry accelerated in
August, expanding for an 18th consecutive month.
* U.S. crude stockpiles rose three times as much as
expected in the week to Aug. 27, adding 3.4 million barrels, as
refineries pared utilization rates, the Energy Information
Administration reported on Wednesday.
* Distillate supplies fell 739,000 barrels, going against
forecasts for an increase and snapping 13 straight weeks of
gains, while gasoline inventories declined 212,000 barrels,
roughly in line with analyst forecasts, the EIA data showed.
* EIA statistics showed total U.S. petroleum stockpiles
rose last week to a new high of 1.143 billion barrels, up from
1.139 billion barrels in the previous week. That is the highest
inventory levels since at least 1990, when the EIA began
tallying weekly stocks data.
MARKETS NEWS
* Japan's Nikkei average rose 1.6 percent on Thursday,
moving further away from a 16-month low touched the previous
day, after the U.S. and Chinese manufacturing data eased
investor worries about the global economy. []
* Global stocks posted their biggest percentage gain this
summer on Wednesday, in tandem with a broad-based commodities
rally. []
DATA/EVENTS
* The following data is expected on Thursday, GMT:
- 1145 ECB rate decision
- 1230 U.S. weekly initial jobless claims
- 1400 U.S. factory orders, July
- 1400 U.S. pending home sales, July
RELATED NEWS
- Tropical Depression Nine in the eastern Atlantic Ocean
strengthened into Tropical Storm Gaston late on Wednesday as it
continued on a westerly path that could take it into the
Caribbean Sea.
Gaston, the seventh named storm of the 2010 Atlantic
hurricane season, was expected to gain force slowly over the
next 48 hours and could become a hurricane by Sunday or Monday.
[]
Some early computer models showed the system tracking in a
westerly direction into the Caribbean, but it was too early to
tell whether Gaston would enter the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Earl in the western Atlantic was
upgraded to a Category Four hurricane again, and was expected
to sideswipe the U.S. East Coast from the Carolinas north,
making landfall on Canada's Atlantic coast on Saturday.
(Reporting by Alejandro Barbajosa; Editing by Clarence
Fernandez)
