* Wall St. rises on Greek aid plan, jobless data
* Stronger greenback pressures
* Market waits for direction from govt inventory data
(Recasts, updates prices, market activity; new byilne,
changes dateline, previously LONDON)
By Rebekah Kebede
NEW YORK, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Oil rose slightly on Thursday,
inching over $75 a barrel despite a stronger dollar, in seesaw
trade inspired by gains on Wall Street due to positive job
numbers and news of a rescue plan for Greece.
U.S. crude for March delivery <CLc1> rose 67 cents to
$75.19 a barrel by 12:51 p.m. EST (1751 GMT).
London Brent crude <LCOc1> rose 79 cents to $73.33.
"Basically, prices were following the dollar earlier and
then when equities started to rally, that brought in some
buying," said Peter Beutel, president, Cameron Hanover, New
Canaan, Connecticut.
U.S. stocks climbed on news of a European Union plan to aid
debt-ridden Greece as well as U.S. data showing first-time
jobless insurance applications fell more than expected last
week.[]
EU president Herman Van Rompuy reported an unprecedented
deal to stave off a broader crisis in the 16-nation euro bloc.
But markets remained concerned about whether the aid would
be enough to pull Greece out of fiscal crisis, and the euro
slipped against the U.S. dollar.[]
DELAYED INVENTORY DATA
The oil market's focus on Wall Street and the dollar may be
due, in part, to a delay in the U.S. weekly inventory data from
the Energy Information Administration, which traders scour for
clues on demand in the world's top oil user.
"Part of the problem is very simple here. We have not had
the Department of Energy (inventory data) out this week yet...
and as a result what we're seeing here is a lot of using the
dollar and equities as a surrogate for oil information," he
said.
Weekly EIA data, normally released on Wednesdays at 10:30
a.m. EST, was delayed until Friday due to snow in Washington.
A report from the American Petroleum Institute (API) on
Tuesday showed crude inventories jumped by 7.2 million barrels
to 337.6 million last week, against expectations of a rise of
1.5 million, and despite a drop in crude imports and weekly
crude runs. []
Gasoline inventories also rose more than expected, climbing
1.6 million barrels to 228.8 million, exceeding analyst
estimates of a 500,000-barrel build. []
(Additional reporting by Gene Ramos and Robert Gibbons in New
York, Christopher Johnson in London, Jennifer Tan in Singapore;
editing by Anthony Barker)
