NEW YORK?World oil prices climbed Thursday on mostly positive US economic data indicating continued demand for the key commodity in the world's largest economy.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for October delivery, rose $1.11 to $75.02.

London's Brent North Sea crude for delivery in October gained 58 cents to $76.93.

An explosion that ripped through an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday had little immediate impact on prices.

Owned by the Houston, Texas-based company Mariner Energy, the rig was not producing oil at the time of the explosion, the coast guard said, although there were reports of a slick being sighted.

The markets were volatile Thursday but prices rallied in late trading after better-than-expected US jobless and housing data.

In addition, latest figures showed orders to US factories rising 0.1 percent in July, the first increase after two months of declines.

"I think that people are viewing that the economy is growing but at a very slow pace, and if the economy is growing then their expectation is for growing demand going forward," said analyst Andy Lipow at Lipow Oil Associates.

Prices jumped nearly two dollars for both the New York and Brent contracts on Wednesday in the wake of strong manufacturing data from the United States and China -- the world's two biggest consumers of oil.

Analysts said the markets were bracing for the latest government monthly jobs report card on Friday amid expectations of continued declining employment.

The Labor Department is widely expected by analysts to report non-farm payrolls ? combining both government and private jobs ? to shrink by 120,000 in August with unemployment edging up to 9.6 percent from the current 9.5 percent rate.

"You probably had some short covering ahead of the holiday week end, ahead of the non farm payroll numbers tomorrow," said analyst Jason Schenker of Prestige Economics.