* Dollar slump lifts crude off early low
* U.S. consumer confidence drops to lowest since Feb
* Coming up: API oil data at 4:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday
(Recasts, updates prices, market activity, changes byline and
moves dateline from previous LONDON)
By Robert Gibbons
NEW YORK, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Oil prices turned positive in
choppy trading on Tuesday, lifted by a slumping dollar that
offset the effect of slumping consumer confidence and still
bulging inventories.
The euro jumped to a fresh five-month high versus the
dollar and the dollar index <.DXY> fell to its lowest level
since February as the gloomy consumer view weighed on the
greenback. [] A weak dollar can lift oil prices as it makes
dollar-denominated crude oil less expensive for buyers using
other currencies.
Pressuring the dollar and signaling a still struggling
economic recovery, U.S. consumer confidence sagged in September
to its lowest levels since February, amid deteriorating labor
market and business conditions, a report from industry group
the Conference Board said on Tuesday. []
But ahead of weekly oil inventory reports, persistent high
stockpiles and analyst expectations that fuel stocks rose again
last week helped keep oil's price bounce in check. []
U.S. crude for November <CLc1> delivery rose 21 cents, or
0.27 percent, to $76.73 per barrel by 12:28 p.m. EDT (1628
GMT), having traded from $75.53 to $77.12, remaining inside
Monday's trading range of $75.52 to $77.17.
ICE Brent November crude <LCOc1> rose 80 cents, or 1.02
percent, to $79.37 a barrel.
"The dollar falling has money fleeing into anything, gold,
energy. Above yesterday's $77.17 high there should be good
resistance at the November contract's $77.34 50-day moving
average," said Richard Ilczyszyn senior market strategist at
Lind-Waldock in Chicago.
Gold hit a record high as the weak consumer confidence
reading boosted the metal's safe haven appeal. [] The
Reuters-Jefferies CRB index <.CRB>, a global commodities
benchmark, hit an 8-1/2 month peak. []
Oil prices had seesawed ahead of the consumer confidence
data after a separate report showed single-family home prices
dipped in July, Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price
indexes showed. []
Oil's early slip was pegged to expectations that inventory
reports will show U.S. refined fuel stockpiles rose last week,
even while crude stocks were expected to be slightly lower.
Total distillate stocks were expected to have risen 300,000
barrels in the week to Sept. 24, with gasoline stocks up
700,000 barrels, as demand stayed relatively weak, a
preliminary Reuters analyst survey on Monday showed. []
Crude oil stockpiles were forecast to have fallen 400,000
barrels on lower imports as seasonal refinery maintenance
slowed demand, the survey showed.
High crude stocks at the key Cushing, Oklahoma, hub,
delivery point for U.S. West Texas Intermediate benchmark
crude, has helped put European benchmark Brent at an atypical
premium to crude futures <CL-LCO1=R>, still more than $2 a
barrel on Tuesday.
Industry inventory statistics from the American Petroleum
Institute are due on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT),
followed by government data from the U.S. Energy Information
Administration on Wednesday.
"We are still convinced that with ample supply and high
inventories, there is more risk that prices will go down rather
than come back up," said Barbara Lambrecht, analyst at
Commerzbank.
Oil investors continued to eye any possible weather threat
to supplies as Tropical Depression 16 formed in the northwest
Caribbean Sea, but was expected to drift northeast and away
from the Gulf of Mexico oil infrastructure. []
(Additional reporting by Alex Lawler in London and Alejandro
Barbajosa in Singapore; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
