* Market eyes possible U.S. stimulus package
* U.S. jobs data worse than expected in Jan.
(Recasts, updates prices)
By Edward McAllister
NEW YORK, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Oil rose nearly 2 percent late
Friday, following positive moves on Wall Street as the market
awaited news of a new economic stimulus package.
Wall Street rallied on Friday as dire job-cut data
persuaded investors that Washington would act quickly to
deliver an economic stimulus package. []
U.S. light crude for March delivery <CLc1> rose 77 cents to
$41.94 a barrel by 1400 EST (1900 GMT), having fallen towards
$39 earlier. London Brent <LCOc1>, which usually trades below
its U.S. counterpart, rose 68 cents to $47.14.
"We looked around and found that a rally in the Dow (Jones
industrial average) of 220 points was just to hard to ignore.
It brought some buying in, forced some short covering, took out
some stops and there we are," said Jim Ritterbusch, president
of Ritterbusch & Associates located in Galena, Illinois.
The economic slowdown has curbed demand for fuel around the
world, causing prices to fall over $100 from a peak near $150
last July.
Oil fell earlier on Friday on news that 600,000 jobs were
slashed in the United States last month, the most severe cut
since December 1974.
Canada also suffered heavy job losses in January, the worst
in over three decades, with 129,000 workers pushed into
unemployment, according to data from Statistics Canada.
[]
Europe's largest economy, Germany, saw a massive 4.6
percent dive in industrial output in December, with steel
orders down 47 percent in the fourth quarter, deepening concern
over the state of Europe's economy. []
Toyota, the world's top carmaker, said its losses were
growing as world car sales drop, while Volvo swung to a
fourth-quarter loss. []
The head of Italy's largest oil company predicted on Friday
that oil could stay as low as $40 for the rest of 2009.
"A price of $40 a barrel, it's roughly my forecast for this
year," Eni <ENI.MI> Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni said.
That level is too low for members of the Organization of
the Petroleum Exporting Countries to generate enough revenue or
encourage investment in new supply.
In a bid to boost prices, OPEC agreed to cut a further 2.2
million barrels per day (bpd) from January. The reduction comes
on top of curbs of 2 million bpd in place since September.
OPEC sources have indicated the group could cut a further 1
million bpd from output when it next meets on March 15.
"These are significant output cuts and if they can
implement more then we should see global stock cover start to
come down. Until then prices seem well supported above $40 a
barrel by the cuts so far," said Julian Keites at Newedge.
(Additional reporting by Rebekah Kebede, Gene Ramos and Robert
Gibbons in New York, David Sheppard in London and Annika
Breidthardt in Singapore; Editing by Christian Wiessner)
