* EIA: crude, product inventories up last week
* Jobs, trade data take backseat to high supplies
* Coming up: IEA monthly oil market report, Friday
(Recasts, updates market activity, prices, adds analyst
quote, changes by-line and dateline, previously LONDON)
By Gene Ramos
NEW YORK, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell back on
Thursday, as investors shifted focus to risk aversion, with
U.S. crude stockpiles brimming, despite a surprise government
report of a supply drawdown last week
U.S. crude futures shot up to a three-week high on the
government report, but gains were eroded as traders took a
broader look at the the latest data.
The fallback developed as most major commodities also
dropped on stop-loss selling, after hitting recent highs,
traders said.
Oil drew support earlier in the session from reports
showing U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell more than
expected last week to a two-month low, while the trade deficit
narrowed sharply in July. []
By 1:45 p.m. EDT (1745 GMT), crude for October delivery
<CLV0> was down 55 cents at $74.12 a barrel, after hitting an
session high of $75.96, the highest since Aug. 18.
ICE October Brent crude fell 83 cents to $77.34.
U.S. crude stockpiles fell 1.9 million barrels last week,
the Energy Information Administration said, much less than the
7.3 million drop shown in industry data on Wednesday and
against forecast for a 900,000-barrel increase. []
The data also showed small declines in distillate and
gasoline stocks and a dip in supplies stored at the Cushing,
Oklahoma delivery hub in the week to Sept. 3.
Separately, data from industry data provider Genscape
showed that oil inventories at the hub fell by 330,495 barrels
to 37.6 million barrels in the week to Sept. 7. []
But overall, total U.S. commercial stockpiles rose slightly
last week by 200,000 barrels to hit a new 20-year high just
above 1.143 billion barrels, the data showed.
"The EIA drawdowns, despite being across-the-board, were
minimal and so overall, I view the latest data as neutral,"
said Mark Waggoner, president of Excel Futures in Bend,
Oregon.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
trimmed its forecast demand for the group's crude this year and
next, denting investors' confidence that prices would move much
above the recent range of $71-$75 a barrel. []
Oil investors, as with their counterparts in other
commodities markets, have had to deal with worries about a
slowing recovery pace in the U.S., the world's biggest fuel
consumer.
Those worries further swelled as the Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development, in its latest
assessment, said the global economy was slowing more than
expected and that monetary stimulus should be extended or
stepped up if the slowdown persisted.
The oil market has spent much of the year in lockstep with
equities and negatively correlated to the U.S. dollar.
On Thursday, however, oil moved in a different direction as
Wall Street was lifted by the day's jobless clams and trade gap
data. []
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar was up slightly against a basket
of currencies <.DXY>, helped by the latest U.S. economic data.
(Additional reporting by Robert Gibbons in New York;
Marie-Louise Gumuchian, Alex Lawler in London; Alejandro
Barbajosa in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
