* US jobless claims, Wal-Mart results feed economic gloom
* US crude stockpiles high, Cushing at record
* Russia gas row, Mideast violence, OPEC cuts help support
(Updates prices)
NEW YORK, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell again on
Thursday as deepening economic gloom and soaring crude
inventories in the United States eclipsed geopolitical tensions
that have put world supplies at risk.
The losses added to Wednesday's 12 percent drop, which
marked the biggest daily percentage decline in the price of
crude oil in more than seven years.
"This morning crude was trying to rally a bit, but more
(economic) figures kept coming out from the U.S. and they were
very bearish indeed," said Sucden trader Rob Montefusco.
U.S. crude for February delivery <CLc1> fell $1.00 to
$41.63 a barrel by 1:05 p.m. EST (1805 GMT), while London Brent
crude <LCOc1> fell $1.07 to $44.79 a barrel.
Oil prices have dropped more than $100 a barrel since July
as a global financial crisis cuts consumer and business energy
demand, threatening to shrink total world oil usage for the
first time in 25 years.
On Thursday, a U.S. government report showed the number of
people remaining on jobless rolls last week rose to a 26-year
high, even as new claims for unemployment benefits slipped.
[]
Adding to the economic gloom, Wal-Mart Stores Inc <WMT.N>,
which accounts for a 10th of U.S. retail spending, reported a
disappointing sales performance in December and cut its
earnings outlook. []
Oil had taken a battering Wednesday after the U.S. Energy
Information Administration's weekly report showed crude stocks
rose last week by 6.7 million barrels, more than seven times
the 900,000-barrel increase analysts had expected. []
"Brent is done going under $40, but WTI (U.S. crude) is a
different animal altogether ... crude stocks in the Midwest are
very high because Cushing is a landlocked base with pipes that
only go in one direction," Christopher Bellew of Bache
Financial said.
Crude oil stocks in Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point
for U.S. crude futures, rose 4.1 million barrels last week,
reaching a record high of 32.2 million barrels.
Prices had gained some support earlier from violence in
Gaza, widening natural gas supply disruptions due to a dispute
between Russia and Ukraine, and mounting evidence of OPEC's
compliance with production cuts.
Three rockets fired from Lebanon struck northern Israel on
Thursday, slightly wounding two people and prompting the Jewish
state to respond with artillery fire, officials said.
[]
While the conflict did not directly threaten any oil
supplies, Middle East unrest can bolster prices because
countries in the region pump about a third of the world's oil.
Russia and Ukraine failed to resolve a gas supply dispute
at a meeting in Moscow, but will continue talks to end the
confrontation, which has choked off supplies to Europe, a
senior Ukrainian gas official said on Thursday. []
The dispute has cut heating fuel supplies hundreds of
thousands of people across the Balkans and hit supplies as far
west as France and Germany as Europe faces freezing
temperatures.
Signs that members of the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries are implementing the group's biggest-ever
output cuts grew this week after Kuwait and Iran told customers
of bigger January supply curbs. []
(Reporting by Richard Valdmanis; Additional reporting by Chris
Baldwin in London, Jennifer Tan in Singapore; Editing by Walter
Bagley)
