* Oil hovers above $70 after early gains
* U.S. retail sales fall unexpectedly by 0.1 pct in June
* U.S. jobless claims rise slightly
* Weekly EIA stocks show demand still weak
(Adds comments, updates prices)
By Chris Baldwin
LONDON, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Oil pared early gains above $72 a
barrel on Thursday after U.S. retail sales data emerged showing
a slightly unexpected fall in consumer spending from the world's
largest economy.
U.S. light crude for September delivery <CLc1> was up 54
cents at $70.70 a barrel by 1428 GMT, well down from an earlier
high of $72.21. London Brent crude <LCOc1> gained 62 cents to
$73.51 after rising as high as $74.72.
Sales at U.S. retailers unexpectedly edged down 0.1 percent
in July from June, a government report showed on Thursday,
casting a shadow over brighter French and German GDP data
earlier in the day. []
"The retail sales data took a bit of the edge off the
previous rally," said Tony Machacek, a broker at Bache
Commodities in London.
Separately, the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for
jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week by a small amount.
[]
Analysts said this year's lack of a U.S. summer driving
season illustrated the parlous state of the world's largest
economy, with government data on Wednesday showing U.S. gasoline
stocks fell by 1 million barrels against forecasts for a
1.3-million barrel draw. []
"I think in the end you just need to look at how much
Americans are driving to get a sense of how the U.S. consumer is
doing," said Harry Tchilinguirian at BNP Paribas oil analyst.
"Yesterday's U.S. gasoline number went largely ignored, but
it shows gasoline demand cratering to 8.9 mb/d at the very peak
of the summer driving season."
EARLY BULLS
Gross domestic product (GDP) in the euro zone's two biggest
economies rose by 0.3 percent each in the second quarter against
expectations for a decline of 0.3 percent. []
The unexpectedly bullish news added to sentiment the worst
of the deepest financial crisis in decades is over, particularly
after the U.S. Federal Reserve made its clearest statement yet
that it sees the recession nearing an end. []
This in turn pressured the dollar, as investors moved to
riskier assets, including commodities, after the Fed on
Wednesday held its benchmark rate near zero and said it would
likely keep it there for an extended period to guide the way to
recovery. [] []
"There's this global good feeling at the moment. It's
reverberating through everything, commodity markets equally as
well," said CMC Markets analyst James Hughes in London.
U.S. crude inventories rose much more than expected last
week on higher imports and lower demand from domestic refiners,
U.S. Energy Information Agency data showed on Wednesday.
But forecasts an oil demand recovery is at hand led traders
to shrug off the bearish weekly data from the world's biggest
consumer of energy.
Analysts at Barclays Capital forecast a bullish upswing in
global oil demand, seven times larger than the forecast from the
International Energy Agency, although they said there was
continuing upside risk.
"In the U.S., a swing up in industrial output, consumer
sales, final sales and a turn in the wholesale goods inventory
argue for an impending sharp change in the underlying dynamic of
U.S. oil demand," Barclays Capital said in its weekly oil data
review.
(Additional reporting by Maryelle Demongeot in Singapore,
editing by James Jukwey)
