Crude-oil futures traded sideways in Asian trade Thursday as oil markets shrugged off a weak reading of Chinese manufacturing data. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in December traded at $74.70 a barrel at 0507 GMT, up $0.12 in the Globex electronic session. January Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.20 to $78.30 a barrel. Chinese factory activity fell to its lowest level in six months in November, with the preliminary HSBC China Manufacturing PMI falling to 50.0, compared with a final reading of 50.4 in October. The reading suggests that “manufacturing activity has continued to cool, but it also provided some hope that downward pressure on domestic demand has eased up so far in the fourth quarter,” Capital Economics said in a report. Oil prices were also not impressed by a surprise increase in U.S. crude-oil stockpiles […]