* Oil down for 6th consecutive day on products stocks
builds * Awaits EIA's weekly stocks data for more direction
* Japan's core private-sector machinery orders at record
low
(Adds U.S. oil falling by more than $1/bbl, recasts headline,
lead paragraph)
By Maryelle Demongeot
SINGAPORE, July 8 (Reuters) - Oil fell more than $1.00
below $62 on Wednesday, on course for its sixth consecutive
fall and longest losing streak since mid-December, after data
showed larger-than-expected builds in U.S. products stocks,
showing little sign of a recovery in demand.
Figures from the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed
distillate stocks jumping by a much higher-than-expected 3.4
million barrels, while gasoline inventories rose 767,000
barrels against a forecast 600,000-barrel build.
[]
Combined with a 1.4 million barrels fall in crude stocks --
less than the expected 2.4 million barrels decrease -- the oil
data shows little recovery in demand from the world's largest
oil consumer at a time when talk of "green shoots" has come
under renewed scrutiny.
U.S. light crude for August delivery <CLc1> fell $1.02 to
$61.91 a barrel by 0635 GMT, having settled $1.12 lower at
62.93 a barrel on Tuesday, its fifth straight day of losses.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> fell 84 cents to $62.39 a
barrel.
"The middle distillates numbers are terrible. It is normal
that stocks are going up at this time of the year but we are
already at record levels," said Tony Nunan, risk manager at
Mitsubishi Corp in Tokyo.
"It looks like gasoline demand had started to get better
and now suddenly looks bad. It could be for a couple of
reasons: it could be a price response or it could just be that
the economy is just not out of the woods yet," he added.
Prices could fall further if the Energy Information
Administration , which will release its weekly inventory data
at 1430 GMT, shows similarly bleak data.
Oil prices have fallen almost 15 percent from their brief
surge above $73 a barrel in late June on worries a rebound in
global fuel demand may be far off, after economic optimism
helped lift prices from lows under $33 struck in December.
But questions over the pace of economic recovery continue
to be raised, with the second-quarter's rally in energy and
equity markets now petering out.
U.S. stocks fell to a 10-week low on Tuesday after a member
of the Obama administration's economic advisory panel said the
United States should plan to possibly provide a second round of
stimulus funds to prop up the economy. []
More bearish data came from Japan, where the value of the
country's core private-sector machinery orders, a leading
indicator of capital spending, hitting a record low in May,
sending the Nikkei average <> closing down 2.4 percent to
a six-week low. []
MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
<.MIAPJ0000PUS> dropped 1.6 percent. []
Potentially curtailing trading, Commodity Futures Trading
Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said on Tuesday that the
agency will hold hearings in the next few weeks to seek
comments from consumers and market players on whether to set
position limits on all commodity futures contracts.
The top regulator of U.S. futures markets is considering a
clampdown on excessive speculation in energy and commodity
trading by restricting holdings of big players, part of a
broader move by the Obama administration to stabilise financial
markets. []
(Editing by Ben Tan)
