* Japan plans extra $100 bln economic stimulus
* European, Asian stock markets higher
* Gold slips towards 2.5-month low as risk appetite rises
(Adds detail, updates prices; paragraphs 3-4, 10-12)
By Christopher Johnson
LONDON, April 6 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose above $53 per
barrel on Monday, buoyed by expectations that rich nations'
efforts to stimulate their economies may help end the global
downturn sooner than expected.
Japan said it planned to spend at least $100 billion more to
help its economy survive the global crisis, as investors seized
on signs that markets may have bottomed to buy stocks and
commodities. []
U.S. light crude for May delivery <CLc1> was up 60 cents at
$53.11 a barrel by 0947 GMT. The contract ended 13 cents lower
to settle at $52.51 on Friday, as a bounce in Wall Street
countered an earlier slide set off by gloomy jobs data.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> rose 52 cents to $53.99 a barrel.
In a sign appetite for risk is increasing, gold prices fell
more than 2 percent on Monday, slipping towards a
two-and-half-month low, and stock markets rose. []
Japan's Nikkei stock average hit a three-month closing high
and European shares opened higher, tracking a late rally in the
United States on Friday. [] []
Analysts said agreement last week by G20 leaders on a $1.1
trillion deal to combat the global economic crisis had raised
expectations that the downturn might not be as severe as
anticipated, but this optimism could be short-lived.
PIXIE DUST
"The pixie dust that President Obama and the G20 sprinkled
on markets last week is still working its magic," said
Christopher Bellew, oil broker at Bache Commodities in London.
"But I think that will blow away as people realise that
there is no quick fix for this recession. I do not think the oil
market will advance much further and I don't think the recent
stock market strength will be sustained."
Goldman Sachs said in a note received by Reuters on Monday
that crude oil price rallies would be short-lived until the
second half of 2009 because of weak fundamentals.
It said recent oil price rallies had been fuelled by
optimism over future stabilisation in the financial system and
in global economic growth, but for the time being these rallies
were unlikely to be sustained.
"We continue to expect that a more stable demand
environment, reinforced by the likely need for the industry to
restock during second-half 2009, will help push the oil market
into a sustained deficit later in the year," it said.
Although crude oil prices have risen roughly 16 percent so
far this year, they are almost 60 percent below their high of
more than $147 a barrel last July.
Analysts said investors might attempt to push oil towards
the $55 mark this week, should U.S. stocks rally further on
signs that the economic slump is abating and if earnings season
does not get off to a rocky start. []
Oil rose nearly 11 percent last month and snapped two
straight quarters of double-digit decline to rally 9.5 percent
in the first quarter, thanks to a rally in global stock markets
and OPEC's production cuts.
Crude oil speculators on the New York Mercantile Exchange
decreased net long positions in the week to March 31, data from
the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed on Friday.
(Additional reporting by Fayen Wong in Perth and Angela Moon in
Seoul; editing by Anthony Barker)
