* Year-on-year rise in U.S. gasoline purchases- Mastercard
* Hopes of more cuts at OPEC meeting next week
* Crude rise expected in U.S. 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 looked 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 $2.02 to $44.09
a barrel by 1323 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 196 cents at $43.49.
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 Jakob, an analyst at Petromatrix.
The Mastercard data is an estimate based on 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. []
European shares <> were up 0.2 percent in choppy
trade.
But in spite of a market inspired by hopes of worldwide
government help for ailing industries and stimulus measures,
overall economic indicators showed little in the way of
optimism.
China's November crude oil imports hit a year low, as the
world's secong-largest oil user shipped in 13.36 million tonnes
last month, official data showed, a 14.6 percent cut in daily
volumes from October and 1.8 percent down on November last year.
"Sentiment rules the oil market at the moment, with most
traders tracking equities," said Andrey Kryuchenkov, vice
president of commodities research at VTB Bank.
"A lot of people will wait to see how much OPEC will but by
next week, and then whether then can comply with the quota cuts."
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 this year, and members are
leaning toward more cuts at their 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. []
(Additional reporting by Jennifer Tan in Singapore; editing by
James Jukwey)
