Crude-oil futures trimmed early gains in Asian trade Thursday after data showed slower manufacturing activity in China and another weekly uptick in U.S. oil stockpiles. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in June traded at $56.25 a barrel at 0322 GMT, up $0.09 in the Globex electronic session. June Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.01 to $62.72 a barrel. The preliminary HSBC China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index, a gauge of nationwide manufacturing activity, fell to a one-year low of 49.2 in April, compared with a final reading of 49.6 in March, HSBC said. “China’s flash PMI remains subdued, but not substantially weaker than over the past six months,” Julian Evans-Pritchard, China Economist at Capital Economics said. But Mr. Evans-Pritchard also said underlying momentum has softened slightly going into the second quarter, and measures by China’s central bank […]