Oil prices spiked but ended lower as weaker U.S. manufacturing data and a less threatening hurricane deflated a rally. Light, sweet crude for November delivery settled down 35 cents, or 0.8%, at $44.74 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent, the global benchmark, settled down 68 cents, or 1.4%, at $47.69 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. The Markit Economics services purchasing managers index was revised to 53.1, which does suggest expansion but is one of the lowest recorded over the past two years, Markit said. Manufacturing data is often used as a gauge for demand by commodity traders and many of those markets fell Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also traded down 0.6% at 16189, and oil has often followed stocks in recent months. “Sharp drop in equities, sharp drop in the dollar and sharp drop in commodities,” said John Saucer, vice president of research […]