Oil rebounds, snaps eight-day rout after new 12-year low on Iran worry

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TOKYO Crude oil fell in Asian trade on Thursday, with Brent marking another 12-year low amid gloom over a world awash with supply and concerns about global economic growth hitting equity markets.

Brent LCOc1 dropped as far as $29.73, the lowest since February 2004 and down more than 1.5 percent. It was down 47 cents at $29.84 a barrel at 0145 GMT and the contract has fallen every trading this year.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) CLc1 erased earlier gains and was down 12 cents at $30.36 a barrel. It settled at $30.48 on Wednesday, up 4 cents, the contract's first gain in 2016.

It was the second time in two days for Brent, the global benchmark, to drop below $30 a barrel after WTI fell below that mark on Tuesday, before recouping some of the losses.

">TOKYO Crude oil fell in Asian trade on Thursday, with Brent marking another 12-year low amid gloom over a world awash with supply and concerns about global economic growth hitting equity markets.Brent LCOc1 dropped as far as $29.73, the lowest since February 2004 and down more than 1.5 percent"

"Perhaps $30 or just slightly below is acting as a little bit of a floor, but that being said that's a straw in a hay barn in terms of positivity," said Ben le Brun, market analyst at OptionsXpress in Sydney.

"The rest of the news is decidedly negative about oil," he said.

A bearish report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Tuesday underlined concerns that demand is stagnating as more supply comes to market.

Data showing that crude inventories USOILC=ECI rose 234,000 barrels last week, much less than expectations, was overshadowed by reported builds of 8.4 million barrels in gasoline USOILG=ECI and over 6 million in distillates, which includes diesel and heating oil USOILD=ECI. <EIA/S>

Concerns about the U.S. economy also amplified the gloom and the Standard and Poor's 500 index dipped below 1,900 for the first time since early October. .N

In Tokyo on Thursday, the Nikkei 225 .N225 was down nearly 4 percent, after data showed core machinery orders fell 14.4 percent in November from the previous month.

(Reporting by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Ed Davies and Joseph Radford)

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