* EIA says crude inventories post surprise increase
* Distillates stocks rise, gasoline falls-EIA
* For a technical view, click on: [
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(Recasts with EIA data, updates prices)
By Emma Farge and Alex Lawler
LONDON, June 16 (Reuters) - Oil eased below $77 a barrel on Wednesday in a choppy session after a U.S. government inventory report showed crude oil stocks posted an unexpected increase last week.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said crude oil inventories rose 1.7 million barrels last week, against an expectation that stockpiles would be down 1.2 million barrels. [
]"It looks bearish to me. Perhaps it's going to put the brakes on the rally of the last few days," said Antoine Halff at Newedge Group in New York of the inventory report.
U.S. crude for July <CLc1> was down 24 cents at $76.70 a barrel at 1451 GMT. ICE Brent crude <LCOc1> for delivery in August was up 7 cents to $77.17. <ECONUS>
The data from the EIA released at 1430 GMT followed a mixed bag of data on the U.S. economy. U.S. industrial production rose faster than expected in May, but U.S. housing starts fell more than expected during that month.
An inventory report from industry group the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday had also showed a surprise rise in U.S. crude stocks. The API said stocks rose by 579,000 barrels, a smaller increase than the EIA. [
]Even so, oil prices are nearly 20 percent above the 2010 low of $64.24 a barrel struck in late May, helped by better buying appetite for commodities such as oil.
Gains in the last two sessions have mostly been fuelled by rallying equities, reinforcing the link between the two markets.
World stocks rose to a one-month high the previous day and helped to push U.S. crude prices above the key technical 200-day moving average. <.MIWD00000PUS>
"The S&P500 managed to start a penetration of its 200-day moving average, therefore West Texas Intermediate did the same," said Petromatrix analyst Olivier Jakob, referring to the U.S. crude benchmark. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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The market on Wednesday was also weighing the potential implications of a speech from U.S. President Barack Obama in which he demanded that BP <BP.L> set aside billions of dollars to pay for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. [
]While some expect the disaster to be bullish for oil prices in the long term as producers shy away from deepwater drilling, others think the accident could accelerate the shift away from traditional energy sources such as oil.
"Maybe for the long-term oil price it's bullish, but for the nearby months I don't see any reason to be bullish or bearish," said Keichi Sano, general manager of research at SCM Securities in Tokyo. (Additional reporting by Alejandro Barbajosa; editing by Sue Thomas and Keiron Henderson)