* Is Mastercard data end of gasoline 'demand destruction'?
* Hopes of more cuts at OPEC meeting next week
* Bearish data likely from US energy weekly inventory report
(Updates price, adds comment)
By Chris Baldwin
London, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Oil recovered more than $2 a
barrel to rise above $44 on Wednesday after an overnight slump
by 4 percent on grim forecasts of lower U.S. demand.
The market is looking to Wednesday's weekly U.S. inventory
report that may show rising crude stocks, and then to OPEC's
Dec. 17 meeting where the group is expected to cut more output.
U.S. crude for January delivery <CLc1> rose $2.28 to $44.35
a barrel by 1230 GMT. On Tuesday oil fell $1.64, or 3.75
percent, to settle near a four-year low of $42.07 a barrel.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> was up $2.00 at $43.53.
Analysts said gasoline pump purchase data in the United
States on Tuesday showed its first year-on-year increase since
April, with sales up 0.3 percent in the week ending Dec. 5.
"We can't really talk about 'demand destruction' in the U.S.
anymore," said Olivier Jacob, an analyst at Petromatrix.
The Mastercard data is an estimate based of gasoline pump
sales and differs from the U.S. Department of Energy's weekly
demand data, which is an implied estimate at loading terminals.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Tuesday
said it expected global oil demand to fall 50,000 barrels per
day in 2008 and 450,000 bpd in 2009, marking the first drop in
world oil demand year-to-year since 1983.
The lower forecast came as EIA revised its 2009 world GDP
growth estimate down to 0.5 percent from 1.8 percent last month.
The EIA's weekly inventory data due at 1535 GMT could show
that crude stocks rose 1.0 million barrels, according to an
expanded poll of 13 analysts by Reuters.
GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS
Asian stocks rallied more than 3 percent to a one-month high
on Wednesday on hopes governments worldwide would help out
ailing industries and implement stimulus measures as they combat
a deepening financial crisis. []
But overall economic indicators showed little in the way of
optimism for the beginnings of a global recovery, instead
pointing at worsening demand and a murky future.
A plunge in China's wholesale inflation rate further dented
hopes resilience there would ease recession's pains elsewhere.
The World Bank predicted on Wednesday that China's economy
would grow by 7.5 percent next year and 8.5 percent in 2010, far
below the expected 9.4 percent for the current year and the 11.9
percent clocked in 2007.
"The only world supply and demand outlook that moves the
market is the one from the IEA (Paris) and that will be
published tomorrow morning," Olivier Jacob said. "That will be
the last report OPEC will be reading before they meet next week
and will really be the key data of the week."
Producer group OPEC, faced with a loss of more than $100 a
barrel in oil prices since July, has already agreed to cut about
2 million bpd to support prices, and members are leaning toward
more cuts at their upcoming meeting in Algeria. []
OPEC top producer Saudi Arabia, which has called $75 a
barrel a "fair price", will make bigger supply cuts to some of
its Asian and European customers next month, as it redoubles
efforts to arrest slumping crude. []
(Additional reporting by Jennifer Tan in Singapore; editing by
James Jukwey)
