* U.S. crude stocks fell 7.3 million barrels -API
* Coming Up: EIA U.S. inventory report; 1500 GMT
* For a technical view, click []
(Updates prices)
By Alejandro Barbajosa
SINGAPORE, July 8 (Reuters) - Oil jumped to a one-week high
above $75 on Thursday alongside positive sentiment in Asian
equities, reinforcing overnight gains triggered by an industry
report showing U.S. crude inventories plunged last week.
The euro surged to a two-month high and Asian stocks climbed
to their highest in more than a week on Thursday after a bullish
forecast from State Street <STT.N> a day earlier fuelled
optimism about the coming U.S. earnings season and underpinned
growing tolerance for risk, sending Wall Street higher.
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"The fear over a double-dip recession or something more
dramatic has eased a little bit from a month ago," said Yingxi
Yu, a Singapore-based commodities analyst with Barclays Capital.
"Market sentiment remains a very important driver. Oil
really follows equity markets and other risky assets."
U.S. crude for August <CLc1> rose as much as $1.03 or 1.4
percent to $75.10 a barrel, the highest intraday price since
July 1, and was up 53 cents at $74.60 by 0708 GMT on the New
York Mercantile Exchange. ICE Brent crude for August <LCOc1>
rose 34 cents to $73.85.
Oil prices are still more than $12 away from a 19-month peak
above $87 reached in early May, though they have rebounded by
about $10 from a trough below $65 on May 20.
FUNDAMENTAL SUPPORT
Crude inventories in the United States tumbled by 7.3
million barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute
reported late on Wednesday, more than three times the expected
drop.
"We have seen a very quick response in the market,"
Barclays' Yu said. "Perhaps it's a reflection of the temporary
closures on the U.S. Gulf coast due to Hurricane Alex."
Stockpiles fell after Hurricane Alex forced some producers
in the U.S. Gulf to curb production and Mexico to close loading
terminals that send most of their output to U.S. refiners.
A tropical depression formed over the northwestern Gulf of
Mexico late on Wednesday, heading towards the Texas-Mexico
border, a region still recovering from Alex, the U.S. National
Hurricane Center said. []
A tropical storm warning was issued in the lower Rio Grande
valley along the border, from south of Baffin Bay, Texas to Rio
San Fernando, Mexico. The warning signalled the storm could make
landfall within the next 24 hours. The expected course takes the
weather system away from main oil-producing regions of the Gulf.
Government statistics on U.S. oil inventories and demand
from the Energy Information Administration follow the API data
on Thursday at 1500 GMT.
"We have to wait and see what the EIA tells. If it's a
confirmation, it would provide support to the market in the
short term," Yu said.
Expectations are for crude stockpiles to have dropped 2.3
million barrels, according to a Reuters survey.
Gasoline stocks fell 191,000 barrels, the API said, in line
with analysts' projections, while distillates including heating
oil and diesel fell 1 million barrels, contrary to a forecast
for a 1.4 million-barrel gain. []
Another serious storm in the Gulf of Mexico could further
disrupt efforts to contain BP's <BP.L> massive oil spill off the
Louisiana coast.
BP <BP.L> <BP.N> boss Tony Hayward met with an Abu Dhabi
state investment fund on Wednesday, part of a quest for cash to
ward off takeovers and help pay for the worst oil spill in U.S.
history. []
(Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Alison Birrane)
