VINACHEM

Oil traded near the lowest level inalmost a week in New York after U.S. crude stockpiles increasedand the World Bank cut its economic growth forecasts.

Futures were little changed after slipping the most inalmost a month yesterday. U.S. crude supplies gained a secondweek and inventories at Cushing, the delivery point for WestTexas Intermediate, rose to a record, data from the industry-funded American American Petroleum Institute showed. An Energy Departmentreport today may show stockpiles climbed by 2.2 million barrels,according to a Bloomberg News survey. The Washington-based WorldBank projects the global economy will expand 2.4 percent thisyear, down from a June forecast of 3 percent.

“Inventories are quite high,” said David Lennox, ananalyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney. “We have to see if therewill be a follow-through in demand in the U.S.”

Crude for February delivery was at $93.51 a barrel, up 23cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchangeat 1:46 p.m. Singapore time. The contract declined 0.9 percentto $93.28 yesterday, the biggest drop since Dec. 21 and thelowest close since Jan. 9.

Brent for February settlement, which expires today, was up37 cents at $110.67 a barrel on the London-based ICE FuturesEurope exchange. The more active March contract rose 35 cents to$109.98. The front-month European benchmark contract was at apremium of $17.16 to WTI. It closed at $17.02 yesterday, thenarrowest spread since Sept. 19.

Cushing Supplies

Total U.S. crude stockpiles rose by 46,000 barrels lastweek, according to the API. Supplies at Cushing increased 1.8million barrels, a sixth weekly gain, to a record 51.8 million.

WTI dropped 7.1 percent in 2012 as the U.S. shale boomdeepened the glut at Cushing, America’s largest storage hub.That left it at an average discount of $17.47 a barrel to Brentlast year, compared with a premium of about 7 cents in the fiveyears through 2010. Brent, the benchmark grade for more thanhalf the world’s crude, climbed 3.5 percent last year.

U.S. gasoline supplies rose by 4.1 million barrels, the APIsaid. They are projected to gain by 2.7 million in today’sEnergy Department report, according to the median estimate of 11analysts in the Bloomberg survey. Distillate inventories, acategory that includes heating oil and diesel, fell 568,000barrels, the API said. An increase of 1.5 million was forecastfor the government report.

Technical Momentum

WTI may extend losses as a measure of technical momentumdeclines. On the daily chart, the moving average convergence-divergence indicator has fallen to the smallest premium to itssignal line in a month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.Investors typically sell contracts when the MACD drops below thesignal line, known as a bearish crossover.

The World Bank cut its projection for economic growth inthe U.S., the world’s biggest crude consumer, by 0.5 percentagepoint to 1.9 percent in its twice-yearly report yesterday. Itreduced its forecast for Japan, the third-biggest crude user, to0.8 percent from 1.5 percent, predicted a second year ofcontraction in the euro region and lowered its estimates for emerging markets led by Brazil, India and Mehico. China, thesecond-biggest oil consumer, was cut to 8.4 percent from 8.6percent.