(Repeats with no changes)
* Traders digest EIA's crude, product inventory builds
* Heating oil up after five-day losing streak
* Housing decline spurs recovery worries
* Reuters poll: analysts revise down oil price forecasts
* Coming up: U.S. initial jobless claims, Thursday
(Updates prices, market activity, adds analysts' comment,
adds by-line, changes dateline, previously LONDON)
By Gene Ramos
NEW YORK, Aug 25 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil futures on
Wednesday rebounded from an 11-week low and five days of losses
as the market shrugged off government data showing
across-the-board rises in crude oil and product inventories
last week.
Oil traders instead looked for guidance from Wall Street,
where losses were curbed and from firmer heating oil futures.
Oil prices found their footing after five straight days of
losses racked up amid worries that the economic recovery was
stalling and with it keep oil demand sluggish.
U.S. crude <CLc1> for October delivery was up 64 cents at
$72.27 a barrel at 1:58 p.m. EDT (1758 GMT), after earlier
falling as low as $70.76, the lowest price since early June.
October ICE Brent <LCOc1> rose 88 cents to $73.26 a
barrel.
Disappointing economic data earlier weakened equities, but
a rebound on a broad market index, the S&P 500, after a
five-day decline helped to buffer Wall Street's losses. []
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http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/gfx1/DTR_20102508083111.jpg
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"Despite weak economic data and the bearish builds in the
EIA inventory report, crude oil futures have not fallen ...
as they are attached to what's going on in the stock market,"
said Richard Ilcyzysyn, senior market strategist at Lind
Waldock in Chicago.
"Crude futures also appear short-term oversold and may be
poised for a rebound," Ilczyszyn added.
Heating oil futures also rose back from a five-day losing
streak, even though total distillate stockpiles were up sharply
last week.
"In terms of market psychology, September heating oil
futures had something to do with crude futures holding up at
this point," said Tim Evans, energy analyst at Citi Futures
Perspective in New York.
Analysts emphasized that, with the summer driving season
winding down, the energy markets were looking to shift focus on
heating oil futures ahead of the winter.
"It's that time of the year when traders begin selling
gasoline and buying heating oil," said Ilcyszyn.
In New York, September delivery heating <HOU0> was up 2.98
cents at $1.9655 a gallon, after ending at a near seven-week
low on Tuesday.
Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration
showed crude inventories rose 4.11 million barrels in the week
to Aug. 20, dwarfing a forecast for a build of 200,000 barrels.
[]
However, crude oil inventories at the key Cushing,
Oklahoma, delivery hub fell 779,000 barrels to 36.3 million
barrels, about the only bullish feature in the weekly report.
Gasoline inventories were 2.27 million barrels higher, at
odds with forecasts of a small drawdown. Distillate stocks
increased by a higher than expected 1.76 million barrels.
In aggregate, commercial crude and product stocks rose to
1.139 billion barrels last week, topping the record weekly high
of 1.13 billion barrels set in the week to Aug. 13.
Oil futures got hammered earlier from data showing that
sales of new U.S. single-family homes slumped to the slowest
pace on record in July. That came on top of a private sector
report on Tuesday that sales of previously owned homes in the
same month plunged to their slowest pace in 15 years.
[]
A separate government report on Wednesday showed that
orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods, excluding
transportation equipment, posted their biggest decline in 1-1/2
years in July.
Also adding to the earlier bearish backdrop, forecasters
revised downwards their their expectations of the oil price
both for this year and next, a Reuters poll revealed earlier on
Wednesday. []
(Additional reporting by Robert Gibbons in New York; David
Turner in London; Alejandro Barbajosa in Singapore; Editing by
Marguerita Choy)
