* U.S. crude briefly touches highest price in a year
* EIA inventory data on Thursday
* Q3 Goldman Sachs profit quadruples, shares fall
(Updates prices, recasts throughout)
By Chris Baldwin
LONDON, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Oil rose towards $76 a barrel on
Thursday, its sixth straight session of gains in spite of a
brief midsession stumble as the euro fell on disappointing Q3
earnings reports, traders said.
U.S. crude for November delivery rose 25 cents to $75.43 a
barrel by 1352 GMT, after climbing as high as $75.96 earlier in
electronic trading, its highest since October 2008.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> was up 32 cents at $73.42.
"At this stage the market is dominated by nothing
commodity-driven -- just the weaker dollar and earnings season,"
said CMC Markets analyst James Hughes.
Goldman Sachs <GS.N> quarterly earnings nearly quadrupled,
topping expectations, but its shares fell on disappointment that
so much of the profit came from trading gains that might not be
sustainable. []
Traders will look to U.S. government Department of Energy's
(DOE) Energy Information Administration (EIA) inventory data
later in the trading session for confirmation that fuel demand
in the world's largest economy is rising.
The EIA is due to release its report at 1500 GMT. []
U.S. crude stocks fell 172,000 barrels last week against
expectations of a 700,000 barrel rise, according to data from
the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Wednesday.
"The API overnight was slightly supportive, as there was a
bigger-than-expected drawdown on gasoline, but really the market
is waiting for confirmation in the DOE stats," said Tony
Machacek, a broker at Bache Commodities in London.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits in the United
States fell unexpectedly by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted
514,000 in the week ended Oct. 10, the Labor Department said,
the fifth such decline in the last six weeks. []
The dollar was up against the yen and euro following the
unemployment data, and the dollar index <.DXY>, which measures
the dollar against a basket of currencies, climbed from a
14-month low to reach a session high of 75.765
FRAGILE DEMAND
Crude, up 1.8 percent on the year, is now in positive
territory on a year-on-year basis for the first time since Oct.
10, 2008. The six straight days of gains mark its longest
winning streak since July.
Oil has marched in step with a recovery across markets,
echoing rallies in equities, gold and base metals based on the
view that economic recovery was gathering strength.
But traders and analysts remain wary that rising prices
based on expectations of a revived economy are out of step with
still fragile demand for oil.
"There is currently no fundamental reason supporting a price
rise and the path back to $100 per barrel will be a long and
protracted one," analysts at JBC Energy in Vienna said in a note
to clients.
"Poor oil fundamentals, including 6 million b/d of OPEC
spare capacity, a massive middle distillates stock surplus and
terrible refining margins will keep the upside potential in
check," JBC said.
For a graphic showing oil's year-on-year performance, click:
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/109/CMD_OILPST1009.gif
For a graphic showing the oil price against world oil
consumption, click here:
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/109/CMD_OILDDM1009.gif
For a graphic showing the oil price and days supply, click
here:
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/109/CMD_OILSP1009.gif
(Editing by James Jukwey)
