NYMEX-Crude steady near $74 on manufacturing optimism

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. [.T]

* Global stocks posted their biggest percentage gain this summer on Wednesday, in tandem with a broad-based commodities rally. [MKTS/GLOB]

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. [ID:nN01132042]

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)